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LINCOLN  ROOM 


UNIVERSITY  OF  ILLINOIS 
LIBRARY 


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V 


OChe   "  fjatnpaKjn    JJociiment,"  , 


Cljanutcr  anb  I^Uiblic  Scrbitcs 


ABRAHAM    LINCOLN. 


WILLIAM    M.    THAYER, 

IHOR  or  THK  "riO.VKKU  HOr,"  THK  "yorTH's  HISTOKV  or  THE  KKBi:i.I.IO»«,"  ITC. 


BOSTON: 
D  I  N  S  M  ()  O  R     AND     C  U  M  1'  A  N  V 
33,    S<'H<M>L    Sthkkt. 
-       1864. 


The    Danger    of   Slavery?  and    the    Safety   of 

Emaneipatioii  Tested. 

> 

The  learned  and  justly  celebrated  French  author,  M.  Augustine  Cochix, 
has  written  two  remarkable  volumes,  forming  together  the  most  comphte  and 
exhaustive  HISI'OKY  OF  SL  AV'ERY,  botli  as  an  institution  and  a  princi- 
])le,  ever  offered  to  the  world;  sliowing  conclusively  from  past  experience, 
and  giving  the  "facts  and  figures"  to  prove,  that  in  Freedom  only  is  safety 
for  auy  nation.     The  volumes  are  entitled  — 

The  Hesults  of  Slavery. 

12rao.     SI. 75. 

The    Results    of    Emancipation, 

12mo.     SI. 75. 

These  works  are  not  only  invaluable,  but  indispensable,  to  every  man 
desirous  of  fully  understanding  the  momentous  questions  at  issue  in  this 
nation  at  this  time.  The  volumes  are  the  unprejudiced  work  of  a  foreigner, 
and  are  not  partisan,  but  cool,  logical,  and  practical. 


Speeches f  Lectures,  and  Letters, 

BY    WENDELL    PHILLIPS. 

1  vol.  8vo,  elegantly  printed,  bound  in  vellum,  gilt  top,  or  bevelled  boards, 

red  edges ;    \cith  the  finest  Portrait  of  Mr.  Phillips  ever  made. 

Price  S2.50. 

"No  ancient  orator  was  ever  more  brilliant  with  keen  sarcasm,  splendid 

invective,  or  destructive  satire,  scattered  like  diamond  handl'uls  in  every 

direction.     *     *     They  are  classic,  as  products  of  rare  genius,  aristocratic 

culture,  stern  moral  purpose,  historic  permaneuce."  —  Methodist  Quarterly 

Review. 


The  Three  New  War-Books, 

THE  COLOR  GUARD ;  being  a  Corporal's  Notes  of  Military  Ser- 
vice in  the  Nineteenth  Army  Corps.  By  Rev.  J.  K.  Hosmer,  who 
volunteered  as  Private  in  the  Fifty-second  Massashusetts,  and  went 
through  tlie  campaign.     12mo.     SI. 50. 

THE  WHIP,  HOE,  AND  SWORD  ;  or,  The  Gulf  Department 
in  '63.     By  Rev.  Geokge  H.  Hepworth.     12mo.     SI. 50.  . 

CHAPLAIN  FULLER  ;  being  a  Life-Sketch  of  a  New-England 
Clergyman  and  an  Army  Chaplain.     12mo.     Portrait.     Price  S1.50. 

[E^  All  these  Books  sent  free  by  mail  on  receipt  of  the  price. 

WALKER,  WISE,  &  CO.. 

245,  Washington  Street,  Boston. 


** 


character   anb   ^ublir  ^trbias 


ABRAHAM     LINCOLN, 


TRKSIDENT   OF   TlIE   UNITKD    STATES. 


By   ^\:sl.   ^L   TILVYER, 

Author  of  the  "  Moneer  Boy,"  "  Youth's  Uistory  of  the  Kebellion,' 


BOSTON: 

DINSMOOR    AND     COMPANY, 

33,  ScHfX>L   Strkkt. 

18G4. 


Entered,  according  to  Act  of  Congress,  in  the  year  13G4,  by 

WALKER,   WISE,   AND    COMPANY, 

In  the  Clerk's  Office  of  the  District  Court  of  the  Distinct  of  Ma.«sachasett8. 


boston: 

stereotyped  akd  printed  by  joifs  wilson'  and  son' 

No.  5,  Water  Street. 


CONTENTS. 


Character    and    Public    Services    of  Abraham 

Lincuhi         ......  9 

BOYHOOD  AND  MANHOOD.  —  ELECTED  PilESIDENT.  —  SPEECH  AT 
SPRINGFIELD.  —  HIS  REQUEST  SUBLIME.  —  SPEECH  AT  NEW  YORK. — 
BEFORE  OHIO  SESATE.  —  HIS  WELCOME  AN  OVATION.  —  ATTEMPT  TO 
ASSASSINATE  HIM.  —  HIS  INAUGURATION  AND  ADDRESS.  —  ITS  ELO- 
QUENT APPEAL  TO  ENEMIES.  —  HIS  STYLE  CLEAR  AND  FORCIBLE.— 
DEEP  INTEREST  IN  THE  SOLDIERS.  —  VISITS  LIEUT.  WORDEN.  — 
VISITS  THE  WOUNDED.  —  HIS  INTERVIEW  WITH  REBELS.  —  AMIABLE 
QUALITIES.  —  INTERVIEW  WITH  THREE  LITTLE  GIRLS.  —  COUNTING 
GREENBACKS  FOR  A  NEGRO.  —  RECEIVING  A  TRACT.  —  A  DESCRIPTION 
OF  HIM  BY  A  CLOSE  OBSERVER.  —  HIS  DAILY  LIFE,  BY  "  PERLEY." — 
DESCRIPTION  OF  HIM  BY  AN  ENGLISH  WRITER.  —  A  REMARKABLE 
EULOGIUM.  —  HIS  SINGLENESS  OF  PURPOSE,  AND  CONSISTENCY.  — 
NEVER  VACILL.VTES.  —  HIS  LETTER  TO  A.  G.  HODGES,  ESQ.  —  WORDS 
OF  MRS.  STOWE.  —  HIS  MARKED  HONESTY.  —  HE  STUDIES  TO  FOLLOW 
PROVIDENCE.  —  LETTER  FROM  A  DEMOCRAT.  —  HE  HAS  NO  VICES. — 
A  TEMPERANCE  MAN.  —  HIS  INTELLECTUAL  POWER.  —  WORSTED  JUDGE 
DOUOL-\S.  —  TRIBUTE  TO  THE  DECLARATION  OF  INDEPENDENCE.  — 
OPINION  OF  SENATOR  TRUMBULL.  —  EULOGY  BY  rVVO  FRENCH  STATES- 
I^I£j,-. — OPINION  OF  AN  ENGLISH  WRITER.  —  HIS  REPARTEES  AND  ANEC- 
DOTES.—  HIS  ADMINISTRATION,  AND  DIFFICULTIES  TO  OVERCOME. — 
HIS  GLORIOUS  SUCCESS.  —  CHARGES  AGAINST  HIM  ANSWERED.  —  WRIT 
OF  HABEAS  CORPUS.  —  ARBITRARY  ARRESTS.  —  LINCOLN  A  GREATER 
GENERAL  THAN  M'CLELL.\N.  —  HIS  ACTS  ANT)  LETTERS.  —  HIS  ANTI- 
SL.\VEKY  VIEWS. — PROGRESS  OF  FREEDOM.  —  WORDS  OF  GARRISON 
AND  HON.  5IR.  ARNOLD.  —  FREMONT'S  ANT)  HUNTER'S  PROCLAMA- 
TIONS.—  MR.  LINCOLN'S  TOLERANT  POLICY.  —  RECONSTRUCTION. — THE 
PEOPLE'S  CHOICE  FOR  PRESIDENT.  —  VOICE  FROM  THE  ARMY.  —  GEN. 
NEAL  DOW'S  SPEECH.  —  HORACE  GREELEY'S  INCONSISTENCY.  —  MR. 
LINCOLN  NOT  AN  OFFICE-SEEKER.  —  OUR  FOREIGN  FRIENDS  DESIRE 
HIS  RE-ELECTION.  —  SPEECH  OF  PETER  SINCLAIR,  ESQ.,  OF  SCOTLAND, 
AJiD   OF   HON.   GEORGE  THOMPSON,   OF   ENGLAND. 


250  U>5 


character  aniJ  public  Scrbrces 

OF 

A  B  11  A  II  A  M     LINCOLN. 


ELECTION    AND    INAUGURATION. 

The  public  services  of  Abraham  Lincoln,  as  President  of 
the  United  States,  are  now  a  matter  of  history.  The  last 
year  of  his  official  term  is  passing  away  with  the  shock  of 
battle  and  the  promise  of  victory.  It  is  well  to  pause,  and 
consider  how  ably  he  has  guided  the  Ship  of  State  through 
the  storm  and  breakers  of  civil  war.  Surely  the  successes 
of  his  early  life  were  harbingers  of  triumphs  in  this  period 
of  sanguinary  strife.  The  elements  of  character  that 
adorned  his  youth,  and  blossomed  into  golden  manhood, 
brightening  the  star  of  his  fame  as  a  lawyer,  legislator, 
statesman,  and  patriot,  prefigured  his  successful  adminis- 
ti-ation  of  national  affairs  as  the  ruler  of  the  American 
Republic. 

Abraham  Lincoln  was  elected  to  the  office  of  President 
of  the  United  States  on  the  6th  of  November,  18  CO.  On 
the  eleventh  day  of  February,  1861,  he  left  his  home  in 
Springfield,  111.,  where  twenty-five  eventful  years  of  his 
life  had  been  spent,  to  proceed  to  "Washington.  Thousands 
of  his  fellow-citizens,  of  all  parties  and  sects,  to  whom  he 
wiis  endeared  by  the  strongest  ties  of  friendship,  assembled 
at  the  depot  to  bid  him  farewell.     They  revered  and  loved 

1*  [9] 


10  THE    PIOXEER   BOY   AS    PRESIDENT. 

him  as  an  elder  brother ;  and,  while  they  rejoiced  that  the 
American  people  had  conferred  the  highest  honor  upon 
him,  they  sorrowed  that  the  parting  hour  had  arrived. 

AYith  deep  emotion,  almost  forbidding  utterance,  Mr. 
Lincoln  thus  addressed  the  multitude  before  his  depart- 
ure:— 

"My  fiiends,  no  one  can  appreciate  the  sadness  I  feel  at  this 
parting.  To  tliis  people  I  owe  all  that  I  am.  Here  I  have  Uved 
more  than  a  quarter  of  a  centm-y.  Here  my  children  were  born, 
and  here  one  of  them  hes  bm-ied.  I  know  not  how  soon  I  shall  see 
you  again.  A  duty  devolves  upon  me  which  is  perhaps  greater 
than  that  Avhich  has  devolved  upon  any  other  man  since  the  days 
of  Washington.  He  never  would  have  succeeded,  except  for  the 
aid  of  Divine  Providence,  upon  which  he  at  all  times  relied.  I  feel 
that  /  cannot  succeed  without  the  same  divine  aid  which  sustained 
him ;  and  in  the  same  Almighty  Being  I  place  my  rehance  for  sup- 
port ;  and  I  hope  that  you,  my  friends,  will  aU  pray  that  I  may 
receive  that  divine  assistance,  without  which  I  cannot  succeed,  but 
with  which  success  is  certain.  Again  I  bid  you  all  an  affectionate 
farewell.'' 

Many  eyes  were  bedimmed  with  tears  when  he  closed. 
Many  hearts  struggled  with  emotion.  Many  a  silent 
"  God  bless  you !  "  went  up  to  heaven  as  the  cars  moved 
away.  How  many  earnest  prayers  arose  from  the  altars 
of  Springfield,  at  the  close  of  that  day,  for  the  President 
elect,  whom  the  people  honored  and  loved  !  They  remem- 
bered his  simple  request,  which  no  other  than  a  sincerely 
good  man  would  have  dared  to  make  in  the  circumstances  ; 
and  hundreds  of  fervent  spirits  besought  Him,  who  pre- 
served and  guided  Washington,  to  sustain  and  direct  their 
friend  in  his  new  and  trying  position. 

There  is  much  of  true  greatness  in  this  single  request  of 
Abraham  Lincohi.     He  who  was  reared  in  a  log-cabin  is 


ELECTION   AND   INAUGURATION.  11 

not  lifted  up  by  pride  now  that  lie  is  going  to  the  TVliite 
House.  The  President  is  as  humble  and  familiar  as  the 
Pioneer  Boy.  His  heart  is  oppressed  by  a  deep  sense  of 
his  responsibilities.  It  is  not  only  a  sacred,  but  also  a 
momentous  trust  to  which  he  is  called.  lie  realizes  the 
solemn  reality.  "  A  duty  devolves  upon  me  which  is  per- 
haps greater  than  that  which  has  devolved  upon  any  other 
man  since  the  days  of  Washington,"  he  said.  Surely  that 
is  responsibility  enough  !  And  yet  he  should  not  have 
excepted  Washington ;  for  even  the  "  Father  of  his  Coun- 
try" did  not  take  the  Presidential  chair  under  circum- 
stances so  momentous  and  appalling.  Those  were  peaceful 
days  in  comparison  with  this  fearful  period  of  civil  war. 
Washington  manned  the  ship,  and  spread  her  sails.  Lin- 
coln took  the  helm  in  a  gale  that  threatened  to  tear  her 
canvas  to  shreds ;  and,  with  the  solemn  charge  to  save  the 
ship  and  her  precious  freight,  pilots  her  over  'dangerous 
rocks  and  through  stormy  waves.  As  he  himself  most 
beautifully  expressed  it,  in  reply  to  the  Mayor  of  New- 
York  City,  who  welcomed  him  to  that  metropolis,  when  he 
was  on  his  journey  to  Washington, — 

"  There  is  nothing  that  could  ever  bring  me  to  willingly  consent 
to  the  destruction  of  this  Union,  under  ^Yhich  not  only  the  great 
commercial  city  of  New  York,  but  the  whole  country,  acquired  its 
greatness,  except  it  be  the  purpose  for  which  the  Union  itself  was 
formed.  I  understand  the  ship  to  be  made  for  the  carrying  and  the 
preservation  of  the  cargo ;  and,  so  long  as  the  ship  can  be  saved 
with  tlie  cargo,  it  should  never  be  abandoned,  unless  it  fails  the 
possibility  of  its  preservation  and  shall  cease  to  exist,  except  at 
tlie  risk  of  throwing  overl)oard  both  freight  and  passengers.  So 
l')ng,  then,  as  it  is  possible  that  the  prosperity  and  the  liberties  of 
the  people  be  preserved  in  this  Union,  it  shall  be  my  purpose,  at 
all  times,  to  use  all  my  powers  to  aid  in  its  perpetuation." 


12  THE   PIONEER   BOY   AS   PRESIDENT. 

The  welcome  extended  to  Mr.  Lincoln  on  his  journey  to 
the  capital  of  the  United  States  was  a  perfect  ovation. 
The  people  crowded  to  meet  and  greet  him  at  every  stop- 
ping-place ;  and  he  was  welcomed  to  the  cities  through 
which  he  passed  with  music  and  the  ringing  of  bells,  the 
waving  of  banners  and  the  peal  of  cannon.  Yet  amid  all 
these  festivities,  and  demonstrations  of  joy,  his  mind  labored 
with  the  fearful  problem  of  national  existence  that  loomed 
up  in  the  future  ;  and  he  repeated  again  and  again,  to  the 
multitudes  who  thronged  to  see  him,  the  sentiments  which 
he  addressed  to  the  President  of  the  Ohio  Senate  :  —      ^ 

"  It  is  true,  as  has  been  said  by  the  President  of  the  Senate,  that 
very  great  responsibility  rests  upon  me  in  the  position  to  which  the 
votes  of  the  American  people  have  called  me.  I  am  deeply  sensi- 
ble of  that  weighty  responsibility.  I  cannot  but  know,  what  you 
all  know,  that  without  a  name,  perhaps  without  a  reason  why  I 
should  hav«  a  name,  there  has  fallen  upon  me  a  task  such  as  did 
not  rest  upon  the  "  Father  of  his  Country ;  "  and,  so  feeling,  I  can- 
not but  turn,  then,  and  look  to  the  American  people,  and  to  that 
God  who  has  never  forsaken  them." 

"With  such  feelings  of  patriotic  trust,  courage,  and  hope, 
he  became  President  of  the  United  States.  Enemies  were 
on  his  track,  and  plots  were  laid  to  assassinate  him.  He 
narrowly  escaped  from  the  bloody  grasp  of  a  traitorous 
mob,  in  his  journey  through  Baltimore,  by  clandestinely 
going  through  the  city  by  night.  All  around  him  M^ere 
those  who  would  gladly  have  seconded  any  secret  measure 
to  murder  him.  Their  hands  were  ready  for  evil  deeds, 
and  blood  was  in  their  hearts.  Yet  no  person  was  cooler 
than  Mr.  Lincoln.  No  man  had  so  much  to  fear,  yet  no 
man  was  more  fearless.  He  had  counted  the  cost,  and  had 
resolved  to  live  or  perish  with  the  Union. 


ELECTION    AM)    IXAUCiUKATIOX.  13 

On  tliat  fearful  night  of  the  18th  of  April,  18G1,  when  it 
wiLs  eoiitidently  expected  that  armed  Iniitors  from  Virginia 
\\\m\d  si'ize  llie  ai*senal  at  IlaqKir's  Ferry,  and  thence 
make  a  descent  upon  Wa.-hin^rton,  the  President  was  ciUni, 
tlioughtful,  and  determined.  His  evident  coolness  inspired 
the  hearts  of  patriots  in  the  imperilled  capital  witli  greater 
courage ;  and  as  two  hundred  of  them  secretly  entered  a 
church  in  the  rear  of  Willard's  Hotel,  where  they  pledged 
themselves  to  die,  if  need  be,  for  their  bleeding  country, 
they  knew  that  a  brave,  unfaltering  patriot,  Ciipable  of  a 
heroic  life  or  a  martyr's  death,  thought  and  prayed  beneath 
the  roof  of  the  White  House.  With  such  a  chieftain,  in 
such  a  cause,  it  was  not  strange  that  loyal  men  resolved, 
with  true  Spartan  courage,  to  defend  the  cajutal,  or  How 
the  streets  with  blood. 

The  President,  *in  his  Inaugural  Address,  clearly  and 
forcibly  enunciated  his  views  upon  the  momeptous  issues 
of  the  hour.  His  words  were  conciliatory,  but  firm,  digni- 
fied, and  resolute.  Loyal  hearts  that  had  no  sympathy 
witli  the  guilty  cause  of  the  Rebellion  were  extremely 
gratified  with  the  address.  Traitors  and  their  sympa- 
thizers were  displeased.  Mr.  Lincoln  smd  in  that 
address,  — 


"  I  therefore  consider,  that,  in  view  of  the  Constitution  and  tlie 
laws,  the  Union  is  unbroken;  and,  to  tlie  extent  of  my  ability,  I 
shall  take  care,  as  the  Constitution  expressly  enjoins  upon  me,  that 
the  laws  of  the  Union  shall  be  faitlifully  executed  in  all  the  States. 
Doing  this,  which  I  deem  to  be  a  simple  duty  on  my  part,  I  sliall 
perfectly  perform  it,  so  far  as  is  practicable,  unless  my  ri^ditful 
masters,  the  American  people,  shall  withhold  the  requisition,  or,  in 
gome  authoritative  manner,  direct  the  contrary. 

"  I  trust  that  this  will  not  be  regarded  as  a  menace,  but  only  ah 
2 


14  THE    PIONEER   BOY   AS   PRESIDE:?rr. 

the  declared  purpose  of  the  Union,  that  it  will  constitutionally  de- 
fend and  maintain  itself. 

"  In  doing  tliis,  there  need  he  no  bloodshed  or  violence ;  and 
there  shall  be  none,  unless  it  is  forced  upon  the  national  au- 
thority. 

"  The  power  confided  to  me  will  be  used  to  hold,  occupy,  and 
possess  the  property  and  places  belonging  to  the  Government,  and  collect 
the  duties  and  imposts ;  but,  beyond  what  may  be  necessary  for 
these  objects,  there  will  be  no  invasion,  no  using  of  force  against  or 
among  the  people  anywhere." 

His  Inaugural  Speech  closed  with  the  following  eloquent 
appeal  to  the  enemies  of  the  country :  — 

"  In  yoiu-  hands,  my  dissatisfied  fellow-countrymen,  and  not  in 
mme,  is  the  momentous  issue  of  civil  war.  The  Government  will 
not  assail  you. 

"  You  can  have  no  conflict  without  being  yourselves  the  aggres- 
sors. You  have  no  oath  registered  in  heaven  to  destroy  the  Gov- 
ernment ;  while  I  shall  have  the  most  solemn  one  to  '  preserve, 
protect,  and  defend  it.' 

"  I  am  loath  to  close.  TTe  are  not  enemies,  but  friends.  TTe 
.  must  not  be  enemies.  Though  passion  may  have  strained,  it  must 
not  break,  our  bonds  of  affection. 

"  The  mystic  cords  of  memory,  stretching  from  every  battle-field 
and  patriot-grave  to  every  Uving  heart  and  hearthstone  all  over  this 
broad  land,  will  yet  swell  the  chorus  of  the  Union,  when  again 
touched,  as  surely  they  wiU  be,  by  the  better  angels  of  our  nar 
ture." 

Eloquent,  beautiful,  fitting  words !  The  most  classic 
scholar  who  has  occupied  the  Presidential  chair  never 
penned  a  paragraph  that  excelled  the  above  in  beauty  of 
conception,  grandeur  of  sentiment,  and  elegance  of  diction. 
They  challenge  the  scrutiny  of  carping  critics  ;  and,  long 
after  the  hand  that  penned  them  shall  be  palsied  by  death, 
History  will  record  them  with  her  immortal  treasures. 


ELFXTION    AND    INAUGURATIOX.  15 

Let  those  wlio  arc  wont  to  critici.se  the  President's  Stiite 
papers,  prouounciug  them  inelegant,  coarse,  without  rheto- 
rical attraction,  excel  the  foregoing  if  they  can.  The  State 
papci"S  of  Abraham  Lincoln,  taken  as  a  whole,  were  never 
excelletl,  and  seldom  equalled,  by  his  prcdecessoi-s  in  olfice. 
Posterity  will  so  regard  them,  and  point  to  them  with  an 
honorable  pride.  Their  author  possesses  one  excellence 
which  distinguishes  the  finest  writers,  according  to  the  rules 
of  rhetoric ;  and  that  is,  the  ability  to  express  his  thoughts 
in  a  concise,  clear,  and  forcible  manner.  The  papei-s  of 
President  Lincoln  are  peculiarly  worthy  of  imitation  in  this 
respect.  They  contain  no  redundant  words  or  phrases, 
and  are  marked  by  such  clearness  and  perspicuity  that  the 
common  people  can  understand  them. 

True,  his  style  is  without  flourishes  :  he  never  made  a 
mere  Jlourish  in  any  thing ;  and  we  have  reason  to  thank 
God  for  it.  A  President  who  was  disposed  to  make  a 
Jlourish  would  be  disqualified  for  his  office  in  such  times  as 
these.  A  matter-of-fact  man  is  needed  for  this  higli  position 
in  this  period  of  grave  realities ;  and  such  is  Mr.  Lincoln, 
both  in  the  productions  of  his  pen  and  the  deeds  of  his 
life. 

We  do  not  say  that  no  defects  are  discoverable  in  bis 
State  papers  ;  but  we  do  say  that  they  are  offset  by  so  many 
excellences  as  to  render  them  of  small  account  to  the  un- 
prejudiced reader.  "  Glittering  generalities  "  may  entertain 
the  promiscuous  assembly,  and  perhaps  contribute  ornament 
to  the  popular  oration ;  but  there  is  no  ])lace  foi-  thcin  in 
the  papers  that  emanate  from  the  Chief  Magistrate  of  this 
great  nation.  If  his  style  be  sometimes  inelegant,  he 
always  clothes  his  thoughts  in  a  clear  Anglo-Saxon  garb, 
and  adds  attractions  to  the  whole  by  lively  conceptions  and 


16  TIIE    PIOXEER   BOY   AS    PRESIDEXT. 

■winning  metaphors.  He  oftener  rises  to  genuine  Saxon 
force  and  classic  purity,  than  he  violates  the  rules  of  rheto- 
ric or  offends  good  taste. 

We  might  quote  many  passages  from  his  public  docu- 
ments in  support  of  this  view ;  but  we  shall  be  content  with 
citing  his  Dedicatory  Address  at  the  consecration  of  the 
national  cemetery  at  Gettysburg,  reserving  other  illustra- 
tions of  the  views  expressed  to  appear  in  the  sequel.  On 
that  memorable  occasion  of  Nov.  18,  1863,  when  the  loyal 
nation  gathered  on  the  crimson  battle-field  of  Gettysburg 
to  pay  a  grateful  tribute  to  the  memory  of  fallen  heroes, 
the  President  was  charged  with  the  solemn  and  affecting 
duty  of  making  the  Dedicatory  Address  ;  and  his  words 
were  as  follows,  —  brief,  appropriate,  touching,  and  beauti- 
ful:— 

"  Fourscore  and  seven  years  ago,  oiu-  fathers  brought  forth  upon 
this  continent  a  new  nation,  conceived  in  Liberty,  and  dedicated  to 
the  proposition  that  all  men  are  created  equal.  Now  we  are 
engaged  in  a  great  civil  war,  testing  whether  that  nation,  or  any 
nation  so  conceived  and  so  dedicated,  can  long  endm-e.  "We  are 
met  on  a  great  battle-field  of  that  war.  We  are  met  to  dedicate 
a  portion  of  it  as  the  final  resting-place  of  those  who  here  gave 
their  lives  that  that  nation  might  five.  It  is  altogether  fitting  and 
proper  tliat  we  should  do  this. 

"  But  in  a  larger  sense  we  cannot  dedicate,  we  cannot  consecrate, 
we  cannot  hallow,  this  ground.  The  brave  men,  living  and  dead, 
who  struggled  here,  have  consecrated  it  far  above  our  power  to  add 
or  detract.  The  world  will  little  note,  nor  long  remember,  what  we 
say  here  ;  but  it  can  never  forget  what  they  did  here.  It  is  for  us, 
the  living,  rather  to  be  dedicated  here  to  the  unfinished  work  that 
they  have  thus  far  so  nobly  carried  on.  It  is  rather  for  us  to  be 
here  dedicated  to  the  great  task  remaining  before  us,  —  that  from 
these  honored  dead  we  take  increased  devotion  to  the  cause  for 
which  they  here  gave  the  last  full  measure  of  devotion ;  that  we 
here  highly  resolve  that  the  dead  shall  not  have  died  in  vain ;  that 


ELECTION   AND   INAUGLTLVTION.  17 

the  nation  shall,  under  God,  have  a  new  birth  of  freedom  ;  and 
that  the  government  of  the  people,  by  the  people,  and  for  the  peo- 
ple, shall  not  perish  from  the  earth." 

The  throng  of  eager  listenei-s  was  swayed  by  his  stirring 
words.  Their  hearts  swelled  with  deeper  emotions  as  the 
speaker  poured  out  the  fervor  of  his  own  patriotic  soul, 
always  iu  full  sympathy  with  the  brave  defendei-s  of  the 
country,  over  the  nameless  graves  which  consecrated  that 
field  of  blood. 

"  The  world  will  little  note,  nor  long  remember,  what  we  sai/ 
here ;  but  it  can  never  forget  wliat  they  did  here." 

Noble  words  of  a  true-hearted  patriot !  Such  honor  to 
the  brave  does  not  often  hallow  their  sleeping  dust.  He 
who  wears  the  highest  honors  of  the  nation  stood  there  to 
honor  the  humblest  private  who  fell  in  that  bloody  conflict ; 
confessing,  that,  when  his  dedicatory  words  shall  have  been 
forgotten,  the  deeds  of  the  heroic  victors  of  Gettysburg  will 
be  remembered.  His  generous  nature  clasped  the  lifeless 
forms  of  those  who  saved  their  country  by  nobly  sacrificing 
themselves ;  and  he  would  recognize  the  obligations  of  the 
living  to  the  martyred  dead. 

In  this  honest  tribute  to  the  army,  we  discover,  in 
addition  to  the  high  merits  of  the  address  as  a  literary 
production,  one  prominent  trait  of  the  character  of 
Abraham  Lincoln ;  viz.,  a  just  recognition  of  true  merit 
wherever  it  belongs.  Unlike  many,  who  ascribe  all  the 
glory  to  a  successful  general,  he  does  not  conceal  the  fact, 
tliat  the  valiant  private,  by  his  telling  strokes,  gives  tri- 
umph to  the  general's  skill.  Let  others  honor  the  military 
leader  alone :  he  would  honor  also  the  braves  who  are  led. 
No  wonder  that  he  is  endeared  to  our  loyiU  army ;  that 
mutual  love  and  respect  is  cherished  between  them. 


18  THE   PIONEER   BOY   AS   PRESIDENT. 


DEEP    INTEREST    IN    THE    SOLDIERS. 

The  Christian  Commission  was  organized  to  bless  the 
,sick  and  wounded  soldiers,  and  Mr.  Lincoln  was  among 
the  first  public  officers  to  appreciate  its  value.  George  H. 
Stuart,  Esq.,  the  worthy  president  of  it,  stated  at  a  public 
meeting  in  Washington  last  winter,  that  the  first  letter  of 
recognition  from  any  official  quarter,  breathing  encourage- 
ment and  hope,  which  the  society  received,  was  from  Pre- 
sident Lincoln.  His  feelings  were  so  deeply  interested  in 
the  welfare  of  the  soldiers,  that  he  hailed  such  an  organiza- 
tion as  a  real  God-send,  and  could  not  withhold  from  its 
officers  the  warm  greeting  of  his  heart. 

In  March  of  the  present  year,  the  President  manifested 
his  deep  interest  in  the  soldiers  by  attending  a  fair  for  their 
benefit  in  the  city  of  Washington,  where  he  made  the  fol- 
lowing brief  speech :  — 

"Ladies  and  gentlemen,  I  appear  to  say  but  a  word.  This 
extraordinary  war  in  which  we  are  engaged  foils  heavily  upon  all 
classes  of  people,  but  the  most  heavily  upon  the  soldier.  For  it 
has  been  said,  *  All  that  a  man  hath  will  he  give  for  his  life  ; '  and, 
while  all  contribute  of  their  substance,  the  soldier  puts  his  hfe  at 
stike,  and  often  yields  it  up  in  his  country's  cause.  The  highest 
merit,  then,  is  due  to  the  soldier. 

"In  this  extraordinary  war,  extraordinary  developments  have 
manifested  themselves,  such  as  have  not  been  seen  in  former  wars  ; 
and,  among  these  manifestations,  nothing  has  been  more  remarkable 
than  these  fairs  for  the  relief  of  suflfering  soldiers  and  their  families 
And  the  chief  agents  in  these  fairs  are  the  women  of  America. 

"  I  am  not  accustomed  to  the  use  of  language  of  eulogy ;  I 
have  never  studied  the  art  of  paying  compliments  to  women  :  but 
I  must  say,  that,  if  all  that  has  been  said  by  orators  and  poets  since 
the  creation  of  the  world  in  praise  of  women  were  applied  to  the 


DEEP   IXTEPwEST   IN   THE    SOLDIERS.  19 

women  of  America,  it  would  not  do  tlicm  justice  for  their  conduct 
durinj;  the  war.  1  will  close  by  saying,  God  bless  the  women  of 
America ! " 

"Wlien  the  honored  conimamk'r  of  the  '*  ^lonitor,"  Lieut. 
Worden,  wa3  conveyed  to  Wiishington,  after  the  naval 
fight  with  the  "  Merrimack,"  in  which  he  was  severely  in- 
jured, the  President  sought  him  out,  to  thank  him,  in  the 
name  of  his  country,  for  his  heroism  and  success.  Tlie 
first  view  of  his  sightless  eyes,  and  his  extreme  sufTerings, 
well-nigh  overcame  the  President.  Grasping  the  soldier's 
hand,  while  his  heart  swelled  with  emotion,  and  unbi<lden 
tears  filled  his  eyes,  he  gave  unequivocal  proof  of  his 
respect  and  sympathy.  And  this  is  only  one  of  many 
instances  of  his  unfeigned  attachment  to  the  soldier,  and 
his  disposition  to  lay  aside  the  dignities  of  office  to  do  him 
honor.  There  have  been  hundreds  of  the  sick  and  wounded 
from  the  tented  field  in  the  hospitals  at  Washington,  who 
can  bear  witness  to  the  President's  pleasant  smile,  and  word 
of  encouragement,  in  his  accustomed  visits.  Amid  the 
pressing  duties  of  his  office,  he  has  found  time  to  go  on 
errands  of  sympathy  and  love  to  the  wards  of  the  hos- 
pitals. 

A  correspondent  who  was  with  the  President  when  he 
Tisited  the  wounded  soldiers  at  Frederick,  Md.,  relates  that 
the  party  passed  a  house  in  which  there  was  a  large  num- 
ber of  Confederate  wounded  men.  At  the  request  of  the 
President,  the  party  entered  the  building.  After  Mr.  Lin- 
coln had  viewed  the  scene,  he  remarked  to  the  wounded 
Confederates,  that  "  he  would  be  ple.ased  to  take  them  by 
the  hand,  if  they  had  no  objections.'*  He  said,  "  The  solemn 
obligations  which  we  owe  to  our  country  and  posterity 
compel  the  prosecution  of  this  war ;    and  it  followed  that 


20  THE    PIONEER   BOY   AS    PRESIDENT. 

many  were  our  enemies  through  uncontrollable  circum- 
stances ;  and  he  bore  them  no  malice,  and  could  take  them 
by  the  hand  with  sympathy  and  good  feeling."  After  a 
short  silence,  the  Confederates  came  forward,  and  each 
silently  but  fervently  shook  the  hand  of  the  President. 

Some  of  their  number  were  too  severely  wounded  to 
rise :  so  the  President  walked  forward,  and  took  the  hands 
of  those  w^ho  were  not  able  to  walk,  and  bade  them  be  of 
good  cheer,  assuring  them  that  the  best  of  care  should  be 
bestowed  upon  them.  It  was  a  very  touching  spectacle, 
and  beholders  wept  at  the  interview.  Most  of  the  Con- 
federates, even,  were  moved  to  tears  by  this  simple  act  of 
kindness. 

AMIABLE    CHARACTER. 

Growing  out  of  this  amiable  and  genial  nature  of  the 
President  are  many  of  those  acts  that  have  endeared  him 
to  the  country.  He  appears  to  regard  his  fellow-men  as 
equals  ;  and  to  act  upon  the  principle,  that  neither  office  nor 
honor  can  add  true  worth  to  manhood.  He  never  appears 
to  be  influenced  by  the  thought,  "  I  am  President  of  the 
L'nited  States,"  in  his  intercourse  with  men.  He  is  as  famil- 
iar, genial,  and  loving  now  as  ever  he  was ;  and  he  possesses 
that  remarkable  faculty  of  making  everybody  feel  at  home 
in  his  presence.  Even  the  little  children  shake  hands  with 
him  as  their  friend,  and  catch  his  winning  smile  of  recog- 
nition with  delight.  He  was  always  on  the  best  of  terms 
with  children,  as  the  little  folks  of  Springfield,  where  he 
lived  so  long,  will  testify.  He  loved  them,  and  they  loved 
him ;  and  here  is  the  true  philosophy  of  his  magnetic 
influence  in  social  life.  He  had  no  enemies  among  the 
young  or  old.     Even  his  political  opponents  were  not  his 


A.MIABLE    CIIAILVCTEU.  21 

enemies :  they  respected  him  as  a  generous,  nobk^,  honest, 
gifted  man. 

It  is  only  a  few  weeks  since,  that  tliree  httk'  girls,  the 
daughters  of  a  mechanic,  neatly  but  poorly  clad,  passed 
into  the  Presidential  mansion  with  the  crowd  on  reception- 
day.  Their  curiosity  was  on  tip-toe;  and  they  were  glancing 
their  sparkling  eyes  from  object  to  object,  not  designing  to 
offer  their  little  hands  to  the  President,  as  their  seniors 
did.  Doubtless  they  thought  that  the  Chief  Magistrate  of 
the  nation  would  not  like  to  have  little  girls  intruding 
themselves  ujwn  his  presence  on  such  an  occasion:  but 
the  President's  sharp  eye  beheld  them  as  they  passed  by 
him ;  and  he  called  out,  — 

"  Little  girls,  are  you  going  to  pass  me  without  shaking 
hands  ? " 

Then  he  bent  forward,  and  warmly  shook  the  hand  of 
each  child,  all  of  whom  seemed  delighted  with  the  inter- 
view, though  not  more  so  than  everybody  in  the  apartment ; 
for  every  beholder  stood  spell-bound  by  the  touching  scene, 
in  which  the  beautiful  simplicity  and  sincerity  of  Mr.  Lin- 
coln's character  appeared. 

President  Lincoln's  administration  abounds  with  similar 
scenes  that  are  incidental  to  his  life  in  Washinjrton,  showinj]: 
more  of  the  "fine  old  country-gentleman"  than  his  official 
acts.  The  Washington  correspondent  of  the  "  Chicago 
Tribune  "  relates  the  following  anecdote  :  — 

"  I  dropped  in  upon  Mr.  Lincoln  on  Monday  last,  and  found  him 
busily  engaged  in  counting  greenbacks.  'This,  sir,'  said  he,  'is 
something  out  of  my  usual  line;  but  a  President  of  tlie  United 
States  has  a  multiijlicity  of  duties  not  specified  in  tlie  Constitution, 
or  acts  of  Congress :  this  is  one  of  them.  This  money  belongs 
to  a  poor  negro,  wlio  is  a  porter  in  one  of  the  deimrtmenta  (the 


22  THE    PIONEER   BOY   AS    TRESIDENT. 

treasury),  and  who  is  at  present  very  sick  with  the  small-pox.  He 
is  now  in  the  hospital,  and  could  not  draw  his  pay,  because  he 
could  not  sign  his  name. 

"  '  I  have  been  at  considerable  trouble  to  overcome  the  difficulty, 
and  get  it  for  him ;  and  have  at  length  succeeded  in  cutting  red 
tape,  as  you  newspaper-men  say.  I  am  now  dividing  tlie  money, 
and  putting  by  a  portion  labelled  in  an  envelope  with  my  own 
hands,  according  to  his  wish ; '  and  his  excellency  proceeded  to 
indorse  the  package  very  carefully.  No  one  who  witnessed  the 
transaction  could  fail  to  appreciate  the  goodness  of  heart  wliich 
would  prompt  a  man,  who  is  borne  down  by  the  weight  of  cares 
unparalleled  in  the  world's  history,  to  turn  aside  for  a  time  from 
them  to  succor  one  of  the  humblest  of  his  fellow-creatures  in  sick- 
ness and  sorrow." 
t 

Pretty  well  for  a  President !  But  Mr.  Lincoln  would 
always  render  a  good  service  as  readily  to  a  black  man  as 
to  a  white  one.  The  worth  of  the  man  is  wdiat  attracts 
his  attention,  and  not  his  complexion  or  his  clothes. 
When  two  or  three  colored  gentlemen  availed  themselves 
of  the  privilege  to  call  upon  him,  at  one  of  his  Saturday 
receptions,  a  few  months  since,  no  visitor  could  discover 
that  Mr.  Lincoln  considered  them  black.  They  were  greeted 
with  the  same  cordiality  and  freedom  that  he  bestowed  upon 
white  men.  It  was  the  first  time,  probably,  in  the  history 
of  the  White  House,  that  colored  men  had  participated  in 
the  receptions  of  the  President;  and  yet  Mr.  Lincoln 
treated  the  affair  as  of  ordinary  occurrence,  much  to  his 
credit  and  renown. 

Another  incident  is  related  by  George  H.  Stuart, 
Esq.,  of  Philadelphia,  to  whom  reference  has  been  made. 
Although  it  was  related  for  another  object,  it  is  equally 
valuable  to  illustrate  the  character  of  our  beloved  Chief 
Magistrate.     Mr.  Stuart  said,  — 


A3IIABLE   CHARACTER.  23 

"  I  am  not  one  of  the  delegates  of  the  Commission.  You  will 
presently  hear  from  two  of  them,  who  have  heen  down  into  the 
depths  of  this  great  work,  and  will  describe  it  to  you  with  the  force 
that  their  rich  experience  gives  them  :  but  I  have  visited  many  of 
the  hospitals,  and  some  of  the  camps,  and  distributed  many  of  these 
religious  books ;  and  I  can  testify,  that,  from  the  beginning  until 
now,  I  have  never  met  a  man  who  refused  my  books,  save  only 
one,  and  he  was  from  my  own  city  of  Philadelphia.  I  do  not  be- 
lieve in  being  conquered.  I  do  not  give  up  any  thing,  if  it  is  prac- 
ticable, and  can  be  effected.  But  here  was  a  case  for  me.  The  man 
told  me  that  he  was  an  infidel ;  that  he  did  not  believe  in  my  books ; 
that  he  did  not  need  them.  Said  he,  'I  «^m  from  riiiladelphia;  1 
live  at  such  a  number,  Callowhill  Street :  if  you  will  go  there,  you 
will  find  out  my  character,  and  that  I  am  as  good  as  you  are.'  — '  I 
trust,  a  great  deal  better,'  said  I.  But  the  case  did  seem  a  difficult 
one.  '  Stuart,'  said  a  Iriend  to  whom  I  related  the  incident,  'you 
are  beaten  for  once.'  — ' No,' I  replied  :  'I  am  not  done  with  that 
man  yet.'  I  approached  him  a  short  time  afterwards ;  and  he  said 
to  me,  *  AVhat  is  the  book  you  wanted  to  give  me  ? '  It  was  a 
selection  from  the  Scriptures,  called  '  Cromwell's  Bible.'  '  Oh ! '  said 
he,  '  I  don't  want  your  Bible  ;  I've  no  need  of  it :  I'm  a  good  enough 
man  without  it.'  And,  with  a  motion  of  supreme  indifference,  he 
turned  his  head.  Said  I,  'My  friend,  I'm  from  Philadeli)hia  too: 
I  know  where  you  live ;  can  find  the  exact  house.  On  next  Sun- 
day evening,  if  God  spares  my  hfe,  I  expect  to  speak  for  the  Chris- 
tian Commission  in  the  Church  of  the  Epiphany.'  He  looTced  at 
me  with  an  inquisitive  air.  '  And  what  are  you  going  to  say  V  —  'I 
am  going  to  tell  the  people  that  I  have  been  distributing  tracts,  all 
day,  through  the  hospitals  and  camps  I  had  visited  ;  and  that  I 
found  but  one  man  who  refused  to  tiike  them,  and  lie  was  from 
Philadelphia.'  — '  Well,  what  more  are  you  going  to  say  1 '  the  man 
asked,  with  a  steady  gaze,  apparently  defying  my  attempts  to  move 
him.  'Well,  I'll  tell  them  that  I  commenced  my  tract-distribution 
this  morning  at  the  White  House  in  Wasliington,  and  the  first 
gentleman  I  offered  one  of  these  little  books  to  was  one  Abraliam 
Lincoln ;  that  he  rose  from  his  chair,  read  the  title,  expressed  great 
pleasure  in  receiving  it,  and  promised  to  read  it;  but  that  I  came 
to  one  of  liis  cooks,  here  in  these  quarters,  and  he  was  so  exceed- 


24  THE    nOXEER   BOY   AS    PRESIDENT. 

ingly  good,  that  lie  didn't  need  a  copy  of  the  Word  of  God,  and 
^vouldn't  have  one.'  — '  Well,'  said  the  man,  completely  conquered, 
*  if  the  President  can  take  one,  I  suppose  I  can,'  as  he  reached  out 
his  hand  and  received  it !  " 

Volumes  might  be  filled  with  such  incidents  from  the 
official  life  of  President  Lincoln,  giving  the  right  key  to 
his  character.  They  show  unusual  personal  worth,  —  a 
wealth  of  virtues  that  few  public  men  have  ever  possessed. 
And  here  is  found  one  of  the  secrets  of  his  remarkable 
popularity. 

Certain  writers  have  so  well  described  Mr.  Lincoln  in 
some  of  these  particulars,  that  we  quote  from  two  or  three 
of  them,  as  follows  :  — 

One  writer,  who  enjoyed  excellent  facilities  for  observa- 
tion, a  few  months  since,  says,  — 

"  Those  who  know  the  habits  of  President  Lincoln  are  not  sur- 
prised to  hear  of  his  personal  visit  to  some  general,  nor  would  any 
such  be  astonished  to  know  that  he  was  in  New  York  at  any  time. 
If  he  wanted  to  see  any  thing  or  anybody,  he  would  be  as  hkely  to 
go  as  to  send.  He  has  an  orbit  of  his  own ;  and  no  one  can  tell 
where  he  will  be,  or  what  he  will  do,  from  any  thing  done  yesterday. 
If  he  wants  a  newspaper,  he  is  quite  as  hkely  to  go  out  and  get  it 
as  he  is  to  send  after  it.  If  he  wants  to  see  the  Secretary  of  State, 
he  generally  goes  out,  and  makes  a  call.  At  night,  from  ten  to 
twelve,  he  usually  makes  a  tour  all  around,  —  now  at  Seward's, 
and  then  at  Ilalleck's ;  and,  if  Burnside  was  nearer,  he  would  see 
him  each  night  before  lie  went  to  bed.  Those  who  know  his 
habits,  and  want  to  see  liim  late  at  night,  follow  him  round  from 
place  to  place  ;  and  the  last  search  generally  brings  him  up  at  Gen. 
Halleck's,  as  he  can  get  the  latest  army  inteUigence  there.  Wlio- 
cver  else  is  asleep  or  indolent,  the  President  is  wide  awake  and 
around. 

"Beneath  all  tlie  playfulness  of  his  mind  burns  a  solemn  earnest- 
ness of  patriotism ;  amid  his  prudence,  a  great  courage ;  in  all  his 
gentleness  and  compliance,  a  determined  grasp  of  the  reins,  and  a 


APPE^ULVXCE    AND   DAILY    LIFE.  25 

firmness  not  inferior  to  Gen.  Jackson's,  tliout?h  witliout  its  passion 
and  caprice.  He  is  a  wise,  true,  sagacious,  earnest,  and  formida- 
ble leader." 

ATPEARAXCE    AND    DAILY    LIFE. 

"  Perk'}-,"  the  Wasliiugton  correspondent  of  the  "  Boston 
Jouraal,"  gives  the  following  view  of  Mr.  Lincoln's  daily 

lite:  — 

"  Mr.  Lincoln  is  an  early  riser ;  and  he  thus  is  able  to  devote  two 
or  three  hours  each  morning  to  his  voluminous  private  correspond- 
ence, besides  glancing  at  a  city  paper.  At  nine,  he  breakfasts ; 
tlien  walks  over  to  the  war-office  to  reail  such  war-telegrams  as 
they  give  him  (occasionally  some  are  withheld),  and  to  have  a  cliat 
with  Gen.  Ilalleck  on  the  military  situation,  in  wliich  he  takes  a 
great  interest.  Keturning  to  the  White  House,  lie  goes  through  with 
his  morning's  mail,  in  company  with  a  private  secretary,  who  makes 
a  minute  of  the  reply  which  he  is  to  make  ;  and  others  the  President 
retains,  that  he  may  answer  them  himself.  Every  letter  receives 
attention  ;  and  all  which  are  entitled  to  a  reply  receive  one,  no  mat- 
ter how  they  are  worded,  or  how  inelegant  the  chirography  may  be. 

"  Tuesdays  and  Fridays  are  cabinet-days ;  but,  on  other  days,  visit- 
ors at  the  White  House  are  requested  to  wait  in  the  ante-chamber, 
and  send  in  their  cards.  Sometimes,  before  the  President  has 
finished  reading  his  mail,  Louis  will  have  a  handful  of  pasteboard ; 
and,  from  the  cards  laid  before  him,  Mr.  Lincoln  has  visitors  ush- 
ered in,  giving  precedence  to  acquaintances.  Three  or  four  hours 
do  they  pour  in,  in  rapid  succession,  nine  out  of  ten  asking  offices ; 
and  patiently  does  the  President  hsten  to  their  apphcation.  Care 
and  anxiety  have  furrowed  his  rather  homely  features :  yet  occa- 
sionally he  is  '  reminded  of  an  anecdote ; '  and  good-humored 
glances  beam  from  his  clear  gray  eyes,  while  his  ringing  laugh 
shows  that  he  is  not  '  used  up '  yet.  The  simple  and  natural  man- 
ner in  which  he  delivers  his  thoughts,  makes  him  appear,  to  those 
visiting  him,  like  an  earnest,  affectionate  friend.  He  makes  httle 
parade  of  his  legal  science,  and  rarely  indulges  in  speculative  prop- 
ositions, but  states  his  ideas  in  plain  Anglo-Saxon,  illuminated  by 
many  lively  images  and  pleasing  allusions,  which  seem  to  flow  as 
if  in  obedience  to  a  resistless  impulse  of  his  nature. 

2 


26  THE    PIONEER   BOY   AS   TRESIDEXT. 

*'  About  four  o'clock,  the  President  declines  seeing  any  more  com- 
pany, and  often  accompanies  his  wife  in  her  carriage  to  take  a  drive. 
He  is  fond  of  horseback  exercise  ;  and,  when  passing  the  summers 
at  home,  used  generally  to  go  in  the  saddle.  The  President  dines  at 
six  ;  and  it  is  rare  that  some  personal  friends  do  not  grace  the  round 
dining-table,  where  he  throws  off  the  cares  of  office,  and  reminds 
those  who  have  been  m  Kentucky  of  the  old-school  gentleman  who 
used  to  dispense  generous  hospitalitj'  there.  From  the  dinner-table, 
the  party  retire  to  the  crimson  drawing-room,  where  coffee  is  served, 
and  where  the  President  passes  the  evening,  imless  some  dignitary 
has  a  special  interview.  Such  is  the  almost  unvarying  daily  hfe  of 
Abraham  Lincoln,  whose  administration  will  rank  next  in  impor- 
tiince  to  that  of  Wasliington  in  our  national  annals." 

An  English  writer  says  of  him,  — 

"  On  one  occasion,  when  the  writer  had  the  honor  of  meeting  the 
President,  the  company  was  a  small  one,  with  most  of  whom  he 
was  personally  acquainted.  He  was  much  at  his  ease.  There  was 
a  look  of  depression  about  his  face,  which  was  habitual  to  him,  even 
before  his  child's  death.  It  was  strange  to  me  to  witness  the  per- 
fect terms  of  equality  on  which  he  appeared  to  be  with  everybody. 
Occasionally  some  one  of  his  interlocutors  called  to  him,  *Mr. 
President ; '  but  the  habit  was  to  address  him  simply  as  '  Sir.'  It  was 
not,  indeed,  till  we  were  introduced  to  him,  that  we  were  aware  of 
his  presence.  He  talked  little,  and  seemed  to  prefer  others  talking 
to  him,  rather  than  to  talk  himself;  but,  when  he  spoke,  his  re- 
marks were  always  slirewd  and  sensible.  You  would  never  say 
that  he  was  a  gentleman  :  you  would  still  less  say  that  he  was  not 
one.  There  are  some  women,  about  whom  no  one  ever  thinks  in 
connection  with  beauty  one  way  or  the  other ;  and  ^here  are  men 
to  whom  the  epithet  of  gentleman-like  or  ungentleman-like  appears 
utterly  incongruous,  and  of  such  Mr.  Lincoln  is  one  :  still  there  is 
about  him  an  utter  absence  of  pretension,  and  an  evident  desire  to 
be  courteous  to  everybody,  which  is  the  essence,  if  not  the  outward 
form,  of  good-breeding.  There  is  a  softness,  too,  about  his  smile, 
and  a  sparkle  of  dry  humor  about  his  eye,  which  redeem  the  ex- 
pression of  his  face,  and  remind  us  more  of  the  late  Dr.  Arnold 
[the  renowned  English  teacher],  as  a  child's  recollection  recalla 
him,  than  of  any  face  we  can  call  to  mind." 


NOBLE    QUALITIES.  27 


^  (  NOBLE    QUALITIES^ 

Still  anotlier  writer^TRnrHfawn  a  jx)rtralt  of  Mr.  Lincoln, 
so  concisely,  and  yet  so  iaitlifnlly,  that  we  cannot  omit  that 
portion  of  it  which  is  most  happily  expressed.  lie  says  of 
him,  — 

"  His  questions  are  answers ;  and  his  answers,  questions ;  his 
puesses  prophecies,  and  fulfihnent  ever  beyond  liis  promise  ;  honest, 
yet  shrewd ;  simple,  yet  reticent ;  heavy,  yet  energetic  ;  never  de- 
spairing, never  sanguine ;  careless  in  forms,  conscientious  in  essen- 
tials ;  never  sacrificing  a  good  servant  once  trusted,  never  deserting 
a  good  principle  once  adopted  ;  not  afraid  of  new  ideas,  nor  despising 
old  ones ;  improving  opportunities  to  confess  mistakes ;  ready  to 
learn ;  getting  at  facts ;  doing  notliing  when  he  knows  not  what  to  do  ; 
hesitating  at  nothing,  when  he  sees  the  right ;  lacking  the  recog- 
nized quaUfications  of  a  party  leader,  and  leading  his  party  as  no 
other  man  can  ;  sustaining  his  political  enemies  in  Missouri  in  their 
defeat,  sustiiining  his  political  friends  in  Maryland  in  their  victory  ; 
conservative  in  his  sympathies,  and  radical  in  his  acts  ;  Socratic  in 
liis  style,  and  Baconian  in  his  method ;  his  religion  consisting  in 
truthfulness,  temperance ;  asking  good  people  to  pray  for  him,  and 
publicly  acknowledging  in  events  the  hand  of  God, — yet  he  stands 
before  you  as  the  type  of '  Brother  Jonathan,'  a  not  perfect  man, 
and  yet  more  precious  than  tine  gold." 

This  is  a  just  tribute  to  Mr.  Lincoln,  so  far  as  it  goes ; 
and  surely  the  man  who  answers  to  such  a  portrait  is  no 
common  personage.  Let  us  consider  more  particularly  two 
or  three  points  of  character  enumerated  in  the  above. 

"NeVKR     DKSI'AIIUXG,     NEVER      SANGUINE."       "What      a 

blessed  element  of  character  for  these  revolutionary  times, 
especially  for  our  leader !  A  despairing  President  would 
have  gone  to  his  grd\Q,  mouths  iigo ;  the  weight  of  his 
responsibilities  would  have  crushed  his  hfe  in  a  single  year 
of  such  public  service.     On  the  other  hand,  a  too-sanguine 


28  THE    PIOXEER   BOY   AS   PliESIDEXT. 

character  would  have  swamped  our  cause  ere  this  by  in- 
cautious measures  and  reckless  expeditions.  For  such  a 
period  as  this,  hope,  caution,  and  prudence  ai-e  as  necessary 
as  sagacity,  wisdom,  and  patriotism. 

"  Never  deserting  a  good  principle  once  adopt- 
ed." Who  ever  heard  of  Abraham  Lincoln  abandoning  a 
good  principle  once  embraced?  When  and  where  has  he 
taken  the  "  back  track  "  since  his  inausruration  ?  Ilis  jrood 
principles  have  carried  him  onward  and  upward.  If  he  has 
been  "  slow,"  he  has  also  been  sure.  He  has  always  had 
his  pickets  out  to  guard  against  surprise.  His  enemies 
have  called  him  "  vacillating ; "  but  where  is  the  proof  of 
it  ?  Can  they  specify  a  single  act  of  his  that  justly  exposes 
him  to  this  censure  ?  Not  one.  The  record  of  his  admin- 
istration shows  that  he  has  moved  "  onward,  right  onward," 
for  liberty,  justice,  and  humanity.  If  he  has  not  adopted 
certain  measures  so  soon  or  hastily  as  many  desired  at  the 
time,  let  them  disprove,  if  they  can,  that  his  policy  has  been 
the  salvation  of  the  nation.  We  fully  believe  that  coming 
generations  will  accord  the  highest  praise  to  his  adminis- 
tration in  this  respect.  Let  the  reader  carefully  peruse 
the  following  letter  of  Mr.  Lincoln,  recently  penned  in  the 
honesty  of  his  heart,  and  say  if  it  does  not  confirm  the  views 
that  we  have  expressed :  — 

Executi\t:  Maxsiox, 

Washixgtox,  April  4,  1SG4. 
To  A.  G.  Hodges,  Esq.,  Frankfort,  Ky. 

My  dear  Sir, — You  ask  me  to  put  in  writing  the  substance  of 
what  I  verbally  said  the  other  day,  in  your  presence,  to  Gov.  Bram- 
lette  and  Senator  Dixon.     It  Avas  about  as  follows  :  — 

1  am  naturally  antislavery.  If  slavery  is  not  wrong,  nothing  is 
wrong.  I  cannot  remember  when  I  did  not  see,  think,  and  feel  that 
it  was  wrong ;  and  yet  I  have  never  understood  that  the  Presidency 


NOBLE    QU.VLITIES.  29 

conferred  upon  me  an  unrestricted  riglit  to  act  officially  upon  tliis 
judgment  and  feeling.  It  was  in  the  oath  I  took,  that  I  would,  to 
tlie  best  of  my  ability,  preserve,  protect,  and  defend  the  Constitution 
of  the  United  States.  I  could  not  tiike  the  office  without  taking  the 
oath ;  nor  was  it  my  view  that  I  might  take  an  oath  to  get  power, 
and  break  the  oath  in  using  the  power.  I  understood,  too,  that,  in 
ordinary  civil  administration,  this  oath  even  forbade  me  to  practi- 
cally indulge  my  primary  abstract  judgment  on  the  moral  (iuestion 
of  slavery.  I  had  pubhcly  declared  this  many  times  and  in  many 
ways ;  and  I  aver,  that,  to  this  day,  I  have  done  no  official  act  in 
mere  deference  to  my  abstract  judgment  and  feeline  on  slavery.  I 
did  understand,  however,  that  ray  oath  to  preserve  the  Constitution 
to  the  best  of  my  ability  imposed  upon  me  the  duty  of  preserving, 
by  every  indispensable  means,  that  Government,  that  nation,  of 
which  that  Constitution  was  the  organic  law. 

"Was  it  possible  to  lose  the  nation,  and  yet  preserve  the  Constitu- 
tion? 

By  general  law,  life  and  limb  must  be  protected.  Yet  often  a 
limb  must  be  amputated  to  save  a  life ;  but  a  life  is  never  wisely 
given  to  save  a  limb. 

I  feel  that  measures,  otlierwise  unconstitutional,  might  become 
lawful  by  becoming  indispensable  to  the  preservation  of  the  nation. 
Eight  or  wrong,  I  assumed  this  ground,  and  now  avow  it.  I  could 
not  feel,  that,  to  the  best  of  my  ability,  I  had  even  tried  to  preserve 
the  Constitution,  if,  to  preserve  slavery  or  any  minor  matter,  I  should 
permit  the  wreck  of  the  Government,  country,  and  Constitution 
altogether. 

When,  early  in  the  war,  Gen.  Fremont  attempted  military  eman- 
cipation, I  forbade  it,  because  I  did  not  then  think  it  an  indispensable 
necessity.  When,  a  little  later.  Gen.  Cameron  (then  Secretary  of 
War)  suggested  the  arming  of  the  blacks,  I  objected,  because  I  did 
not  yet  think  it  an  indispensable  necessity.  When,  still  later.  Gen. 
Hunter  attempted  military  emancipation,  I  again  forbade  it,  because 
I  did  not  yet  tliink  the  indispensable  necessity  had  come. 

When,  in  March,  May,  and  July,  18G2,  I  made  earnest  and  suc- 
cessive ai)peals  to  the  Bonier  States  to  favor  compensated  emanci- 
pation, I  believed  the  indispensable  necessity  for  milit^iry  emanci- 
pation and  arming  of  the  blacks  would  come,  unless  averted  by  that 


30  THE    PIONEER   BOY   AS    TRESIDEXT. 

measure.  They  declined  tlie  proposition ;  and  I  was,  in  my  best 
judgment,  driven  to  tlie  alternative  of  either  siu-reudering  the 
Union,  and  with  it  the  Constitution,  or  of  laying  the  strong  hand 
upon  the  colored  element.  I  chose  the  latter.  In  choosmg  it,  I 
hoped  for  greater  gain  than  loss ;  but  of  this  1  was  not  entirely  con- 
fident. 

More  than  a  year  of  trial  now  shows  no  loss  by  it  in  our  foreign 
relations,  none  in  our  home  popular  sentiment,  none  in  our  white 
military  force,  — no  loss  by  it  anyhow  or  anywhere.  On  the  con- 
trary, it  shows  a  gain  of  quite  130,000  soldiers,  seamen,  and  laborers. 
These  are  palpable  facts,  about  wliich,  as  facts,  there  can  be  no  cav- 
illing. We  have  the  men,  and  we  could  not  have  had  them  with- 
out the  measm-e.  Kow,  let  any  Union  man,  who  complains  of  the 
measure,  test  himself  by  writing  down  in  one  Une  that  he  is  for 
subduing  the  Rebellion  by  force  of  arms  ;  and  the  next,  that  he  is 
for  taking  these  130,000  men  from  the  Union  side,  and  placing  them 
where  they  would  be  but  for  the  measm-e  he  condemns.  If  he  can- 
not face  his  cause  so  stated,  it  is  because  he  cannot  face  the  truth. 

I  add  a  word  wliich  was  not  in  the  verbal  conversation.  In  tell- 
ing this  tale,  I  attempt  no  compliment  to  my  own  sagacity.  I 
claim  not  to  have  controlled  events,  but  confess  plainly  that  events 
have  controlled  me.  Now,  at  the  end  of  three  years'  struggle,  the 
nation's  condition  is  not  what  either  party  or  any  man  devised  or 
expected :  God  alone  can  claim  it.  Whither  it  is  tending  seems 
plain.  If  God  now  wills  the  removal  of  a  great  wrong,  and  wills 
also  that  we  of  the  North  as  well  as  you  of  the  South  shall  pay  fair. 
ly  for  our  complicity  in  that  wrong,  impartial  history  will  find  there- 
in new  cause  to  attest  and  revere  the  justice  and  goodness  of  God. 
Yours  truly,  A.  Lincoln. 

This  letter  is  valuable,  as  proof  that  Mr.  Lincoln  never 
abandons  a  good  principle  once  adopted ;  wliile  as  a 
literary  production,  replete  uith  sound  sense,  lofty  senti- 
ments, profound  logic,  true  political  philosophy,  and  poetic 
beauty,  it  was  never  surpassed.  It  will  bear  comparison 
with  the  most  felicitous  epistolary  efforts  of  the  greatest 
statesmen  of  this  or  other  lauds. 


NOBLE    QUALITIES.  31 

Mrs.  Stowe,  the  celebrated  authoress,  speaking  of  the  one- 
ness of  his  purpose,  says,  — 

"  Surrounded  by  all  sorts  of  conflicting  claims,  by  traitors,  by  half- 
hearted, timid  men,  by  Border-State  men  and  Free-State  men,  by 
radical  abolitionists  and  conservatives,  he  has  listened  to  all, 
weighed  the  words  of  all ;  waited,  observed  ;  yielded  now  here,  and 
now  there ;  but  in  the  main  kept  one  inflexible,  honest  purjxtse,  and 
draicn  the  national  ship  throiujh." 

"  Honest,  yet  shrewd  ;  careless  in  forms,  consci- 
entious IN  ESSENTIALS."  This  is  another  element  of  Mr. 
Lincoln's  character  named  in  the  portraiture,  to  which  we 
will  return.  The  worth  of  honesty,  conscientiousness, 
in  a  leader  now,  when  treachery  and  treason  have  done  their 
worst,  no  man  can  estimate.  Suppose  we  had  another 
James  Buchanan  in  the  presidential  chair  now,  —  a  man 
who  has  been  long  known  for  the  opposite  of  politicid  hon- 
esty and  conscientiousness :  what  could  loyalty  do  ?  Fare- 
well to  our  Republican  Government,  farewell  to  our  liber- 
ties and  national  glory,  if  such  a  man  were  our  President ! 

In  this  hour  of  peril,  we  need  an  honesty  at  the  helm 
that  will  inspire  confidence  in  every  loyal  heart.  The  bare 
suspicion  of  political  chicanery  in  our  leader  would  almost 
paralyze  the  arm  tliat  is  lifted  to  crush  the  Rebellion.  The 
suspicion  that  Gen.  M'Clellan  was  not  faithful  to  our  ciiuse 
sacrificed  the  confidence  of  the  nation,  and  doomed  him  to 
inglorious  retirement.  And  thus  it  ought  to  be.  Treach- 
ery well-nigh  destroyed  the  Government,  and  honesty 
alone  can  save  it.  Thanks,  thanks,  that  a  good  Providence 
has  given  us  a  ruler  whose  honesty  is  "  clear  as  the  sun, 
fair  as  the  moon,"  and,  to  our  malignant  foes,  '*  terrible  as 
an  army  with  banners  "  ! 

Reader,  how  much  do  you  suppose  our  enemies  would 


32  THE    PIONEER   BOY   AS    PRESIDENT. 

give  for  the  proof  of  deceit  and  political  fraud  in  Abraham 
Lincoln  ?  It  would  be  worth  the  price  of  our  national  de- 
struction to  them,  since  they  might  use  it  to  destroy  us. 
Ah !  never  before  did  this  country  have  such  occasion  to 
glorify  HONESTY  as  now.  Never  before  had  the  people  so 
great  reason  to  bless  the  Lord  for  an  honest  man,  "  the  no- 
blest work  of  God." 

"  Doing  nothing  '  when  he  knotvs  not  what  to 
DO."  How  many  men,  in  this  dilemma,  rush  headlong,  hit 
or  miss !  Being  ambitious,  and  devoid  of  prudence  and 
foresight,  they  conquer  perplexity  by  sacrificing  success. 
But  not  so  with  a  man  of  as  much  sagacity  and  caution 
as  Mr.  Lincoln  possesses.  He  can  see  no  advantage  in 
blind  action.  If  something  be  lost  by  waiting  for  devel- 
opments, less  is  gained  by  a  reckless  leap  in  the  dark. 
Better  do  nothing  than  to  act  without  intelligence  and  fore- 
sight, especially  in  a  crisis  like  the  present. 

But  we  will  not  pursue  this  portrait,  except  to  notice 
one  more  point,  contained  in  the  sentence,  "  Asking  good 
people  to  ipray  for  Ju?n,  and  publicly  acknowledging  the  hand 
of  God  in  events.^* 

Recall  what  we  have  already  said  of  his  recognition  of 
divine  agency  in  human  affairs.  Beginning  with  his 
speech  on  leaving  Springfield,  and  ending  with  his  last 
proclamation  of  thanksgiving  to  God  for  recent  victories, 
observe  that  here  is  a  fundamental  principle  of  his  religious 
character.  He  believes  in  Providence  ;  "  and,  believing,  he 
maintains."  Frequently  he  alluded,  in  his  speeches  on 
his  presidential  tour,  to  the  utter  impossibility  of  foreseeing, 
what  the  morrow  might  bring  forth  to  the  country ;  and,  at 
Buffalo,  he  used  the  following  words  of  wisdom:  "When 
it  is  considered  that  these  difficulties  are  without  precedent, 


NOBLE    QUALITIES.  33 

and  never  have  been  acteil  upon  hy  any  individual  situated 
as  I  am,  it  is  most  proper  that  1  sliouM  wait,  and  see  the 
developments,  and  get  all  the  light^i)Ossible."  And  in  his 
Inaugunil  Address,  alter  speaking'  of  what  he  should  do, 
be  very  wisely  tlnew  in  this  paragraph:  — 

'T'z3  course  licre  indit'atc<l  will  be  followed,  unless  current  events 
^id  experience  s/taU  show  a  moilijication  or  chamje  to  be  projier ;  and,  in 
every  csise  and  exigency,  my  best  discretion  will  be  exercised 
according  to  the  circumstances  actually  existing." 

Now,  the  full  import  of  these  passages,  interpreted  by 
bis  subsequent  acts,  is  an  honest  recognition  of  Providence, 
and  a  determination  to  follow  its  teachings.  To  the  Synod 
of  the  Jialtimore  Old-School  Presbyterians,  who  paid  their 
respects  to  him  in  a  body,  he  replied :  — 

"  I  can  only  say  in  this  case,  as  in  so  many  others,  that  I  am 
profoundly  grateful  for  the  respect,  given  in  every  variety  of  form 
which  it  can  be  given,  from  the  rehgious  bodies  of  the  country. 
I  saw,  upon  taking  my  position  here,  I  was  going  to  have  an 
administration,  if  an  administration  at  all,  of  extraordinary  dilfi- 
cuJty. 

"  It  was,  without  exception,  a  time  of  the  greatest  difficulty  this 
country  ever  saw.  I  was  early  brought  to  a  lively  reflection,  that 
nothing  in  my  power  whatever,  or  others,  to  rely  upon,  would  suc- 
ceed, without  direct  assistance  of  the  Almighty.  I  have  often 
wished  that  I  was  a  more  devout  man  than  I  am:  nevertheless, 
amid  the  greatest  difficulties  of  my  administration,  when  I  could 
not  see  any  other  resort,  I  would  i)lace  my  whole  reliance  in  God, 
knowing  all  would  go  well,  and  that  he  would  decide  for  the  right. 

"  I  thank  you,  gentlemen,  in  the  name  of  the  religious  bodies 
which  you  represent,  and  in  the  name  of  our  common  Father,  for 
tliifl  expression  of  respect.     I  cannot  say  more." 

Similar  thoughts  he  had  expressed  before  to  the  Synod 
of  the  New-School  Presbyterians,  and  since  then  to  the 

2* 


34  THE    PIONEER   BOY   AS    PRESIDENT. 

National  Conference  of  Methodists,  and  the  General  Asso- 
ciation of  Baptists ;  all  of  which  we  love  to  mention,  as 
showing  his  firm  reliance  upon  God  for  success. 

Then,  too,  his  frequent  proclamations  for  days  of  fasting 
and  prayer,  as  well  as  days  of  thanksgiving,  indicate  the 
strength  of  his  convictions  on  this  point.  These  requests 
have  been  so  often  repeated,  that  cavillers,  whom  posterity 
will  rebuke  for  their  godless  ridicule,  have  sneeringly  re- 
ferred, in  consequence,  to  the  "  pious  air  of  Washington." 

If  the  reader  will  turn  to  his  recent  memorable  letter  to 
A.  G.  Hodges,  Esq.,  already  quoted,  he  will  find  this  frank 
avowal:  "I  claim  not  to  have  controlled  events, 

BUT  confess  plainly  THAT  EVENTS  HAVE  CONTROLLED 

ME."  This  is  but  another  laconic  and  happy  way  of 
expressing  his  purpose  to  follow  the  leadings  of  Divine 
Providence.  He  continues :  "  Now,  at  the  end  of  three 
years'  struggle,  the  nation's  condition  is  not  what  either 
party  or  any  man  devised  or  expected:  God  alone  can 
claim  it.  Whither  it  is  tending  seems  plain.  If  God  now 
wills  the  removal  of  a  great  icrong,  and  wills  also  that  we 
of  the  North,  as  well  as  you  of  the  South,  shall  pay  fairly 
for  our  complicity  in  that  wrong,  impartial  history  ic  ill  find 
therein  new  cause  to  attest  and  revere  the  justice  and  good- 
ness of  Godr 

Let  sceptics  and  critics  pour  contempt  upon  this  para- 
graph, if  they  will :  we  know  of  nothing  in  the  annals  of 
statesmanship  that  is  more  sublime.  For  the  head  of  a 
great  nation  thus  to  declare  fearlessly  that  the  hand  of  God 
is  guiding  and  controlling  events,  and  that  he  has  recog- 
nized the  truth,  and  will  continue  to  recognize  it,  in  the 
face  of  the  world,  is  the  climax  of  moral  sublimity.  We 
have  hope  of  a  nation  having  such  a  ruler.     It  presents 


NOBLE   QUALITIES.  35 

such  a  striking  contrast  with  tlie  too -frequent  infidelity 
and  godless  disregard  of  Jehovah  that  pervades  political 
circles,  as  to  fill  our  hearts  with  admiration.  "Well  may 
the  American  people  rejoice  in  this  new  era  of  Chris- 
tian rule.  That  we  have  a  President  who  dares  write 
these  sincere  sentiments  of  his  heart,  and  publish  them  to 
the  nation,  is  cause  for  gratitude.  A  student  of  ruovi- 
DENCE  IN  THE  White  IIouse  !  Let  the  Church  of  the 
living  God  hold  up  his  hands  with  their  su[)[)lications,  as 
Aaron  and  Ilur  sustained  the  hand  of  Moses  until  Israel 
conquered ! 

A  gentleman,  whose  boyhood  and  early  manhood  were 
spent  in  intimate  association  with  Abraham  Lincoln,  and 
who  has  maintained  that  acquaintance  to  the  present  time, 
although  they  politically  differ,  writes  to  the  author  as  fol- 
lows :  "The  fact  is,  you  never  saw  such  a  man  as  Abraham 
Lincoln.  You  may  think  that  I  exaggerate  ;  but  I  do  not : 
every  word  that  I  have  written  is  true.  You  cannot  ex- 
aggerate in  speaking  of  his  character.  I  will  say  here, 
that  we  differ  wholly  in  political  matters.  He  has  always 
been  a  Henry  Clay  Whig,  and  I  have  always  been  a 
Jackson  Democrat.  Yet,  when  he  was  nominated  for  the 
Presidency,  I  felt  that  it  was  my  duty  to  vote  for  him  ;  and 
J  did:' 

We  trust  that  there  will  be  many  Democrats  of  like  con- 
scientiousness and  consistency  at  the  next  Presidential 
election. 

Even  that  now  Copperhead  journal,  the  "  New-York 
World,"  spoke  as  follows  since  Mr.  Lincoln  became  Presi- 
dent :  — 

"Without  any  advantages  of  wealth,  birtli,  education,  nian- 
ners^  personal  appearance,  personal  connections,  or  exi>erieuce  in 


36  THE    riOXEEE   BOY   AS   PEEStDENT. 

public  life,  President  Lincoln  has  taught  the  country  to  confide 
in  him  with  almost  implicit  trust.  This  is  the  most  extraordinary 
moral  phenomenon  of  which  we  have  any  recollection.  How  are 
we  to  account  for  it  ? 

"  He  is  a  living  exemphfication  of  the  important  truth,  that,  of 
all  the  elements  of  influence,  none  is  so  powerful  as  character. 
Knowledge,  to  be  sure,  is  power,  according  to  the  adage;  so 
wealth  is  power,  social  position  is  power,  great  capacity  for  pohti- 
cal  intrigue  is  power,  eloquence  and  brilliant  intellectual  gifts  are 
power :  but  it  is  much  more  emphatically  true  that  character  la 
power.  Mr.  Lincoln  has  become  so  strong  in  the  esteem  of  his 
countrymen,  because  he  has  given  evidence  of  a  strong  character, 
held  in  subordination  to  high  moral  principle,  or  rather  because 
his  uncommon  strength  of  character  consists  in  the  robustness  of 
his  moral  nature." 

Much  has  been  said  about  Mr.  Lincoln's  correct  habits. 
"  He  has  no  vices,"  remarked  a  distinguished  statesman ;  and 
the  remark  is  true.  His  most  intimate  friend  never  wit- 
nessed the  least  approximation  to  a  vice  in  Mr.  Lincoln.  He 
never  smokes,  never  uses  intoxicating  drinks,  never  utters 
a  profane  word,  or  engages  in  games  of  chance.  Such  an 
example  is  unusual  in  the  political  world.  It  is  not  un- 
frequently  the  case,  that  good  men  sacrifice  their  principles 
wholly  when  they  enter  the  political  arena.  It  requires 
moral  courage  and  deep  religious  conviction  to  withstand 
the  temptations  of  this  public  sphere ;  and  Mr.  Lincoln  is 
one  of  the  few  statesmen  who  have  proved  themselves 
equal  to  the  position.  His  habits  are  as  simple  and  pure 
to-day  as  they  were  in  his  early  manhood. 

An  English  correspondent  writes  that  he  was  spending 
the  evening  with  a  small  company  of  gentlemen  in  AVash- 
ino-ton,  among  whom  was  Mr.  Lincoln.  In  the  course  of 
the  evening,  cigars  were  passed  to  all  but  the  President ; 
the  host  remarking  with  a  smile,  "Mr.  Lincoln   has   no 


NOBLE    QU.VLITIES.  37 

vices."  —  ''Tliat  is  a  (loubHul  compliment,"  answered  the 
President.  "  I  recollect  once  being  outside  a  stage  in 
Illinois,  and  a  man  sitting  by  me  ofil-red  me  a  cigar.  I 
told  him  I  had  no  vices.  He  said  nothing,  smoked  for 
some  time,  and  then  grunted  out,  *  It's  my  experience,  that 
folks  who  have  no  vices  have  plaguy  few  virtues.' "  The 
company  could  but  admire  Mr.  Lincoln's  way  of  adhering 
to  his  principles,  and,  at  the  same  time,  pleasing  his  asso- 
ciates, instead  of  giving  offence. 

Among  the  numerous  delegations  who  have  waited  upon 
the  President  to  utter  complaints,  make  suggestions,  or 
proffer  friendly  salutations,  was  a  large  delegation  of  the 
Sons  of  Temperance.  They  presented  an  address  on  the 
subject  of  intemperance  in  the  army ;  to  which  Mr.  Lincoln 
replied,  in  substance  :  — 

"  When  he  was  a  young  man,  long  ago,  before  the  Sons  of  Tem- 
perance, as  an  organization,  had  an  existence,  he,  in  a  humble  way, 
made  temperance  speeches ;  and  he  thought  he  might  say,  that, 
to  this  day,  he  had  never,  by  liis  example,  belied  what  he  then 
said.  As  to  the  suggestions  for  the  purpose  of  the  advancement 
of  the  cause  of  temperance  in  the  army,  he  could  not  respond  to 
them.  To  prevent  intemperance  in  the  army  is  tlie  aim  of  a 
great  part  of  the  rules  and  articles  of  war.  It  is  part  of  the  law 
of  the  land,  and  was  so,  he  presumed,  long  ago,  to  dismiss  officers 
for  drunkenness.  He  was  not  sure,  that,  consistently  with  the 
public  service,  more  could  be  done  than  has  been  done.  All, 
therefore,  he  could  promise,  was  to  have  a  copy  of  the  address 
submitted  to  the  principal  departments,  and  have  it  considered 
whether  it  contains  any  suggestions  which  will  improve  the  cause 
of  temperance  and  repress  drunkenness  in  the  army  any  better 
than  is  already  done.  He  thought  tlie  reasonable  men  of  the 
world  have  long  since  agreed  that  drimkenness  is  one  of  the  great- 
est, if  not  the  very  greatest,  of  all  evils  among  mankind.  That 
is  not  a  matter  of  dispute.  All  men  agree  that  intemperance  is 
a  great  curse,  but  differ  about  the  cure.    The  suggestion  that  it 


38  THE   PIONEER  BOY   AS   PRESIDENT. 

existed  to  a  great  extent  in  the  army  was  true ;  but,  whether  that 
was  the  cause  of  defeats,  he  knew  not :  but  he  did  know  that  there 
was  a  great  deal  of  it  on  the  other  side ;  therefore  they  had  no 
right  to  beat  us  on  that  ground." 

It  appears  that  lie  was  once  a  temperance  lecturer,  in  a 
humble  way ;  and  he  is  not  ashamed  to  own  it  now  that  he 
is  President.  Indeed,  he  never  did  any  thing  that  he  is 
ashamed  of,  so  far  as  we  can  learn.  He  has  no  cause  for 
shame,  when  his  acts  have  always  been  on  the  side  of  right. 
One  of  the  most  honorable  and  able  lawyers  of  Illinois,  for 
seventeen  years  the  law-partner  of  Mr.  Lincoln,  closes  a 
letter  to  the  author  with  the  following  sentence  :  '-'•  Ahraliam 
Lincoln  never  did  a  mean  thing  in  his  life."  Surely  a 
man  of  whom  this  can  be  truthfully  said  need  not  be 
ashamed  to  own  his  acts. 

When  the  Petition  of  the  Loyal  Women  of  Massachu- 
setts, on  the  subject  of  intemperance  in  the  army,  was 
presented  to  the  President  by  a  distinguished  statesman, 
he  took  the  instrument,  carefully  read  it,  and  then,  as  care- 
fully folding  it  in  his  hand,  exclaimed,  "  Dear,  good  souls ! 
if  they  only  knew  how  much  I  had  tried  to  remedy  this 
great  evil,  they  would  be  rejoiced." 

Reader,  consider,  for  a  moment,  how  much  the  nation 
owes  to  a  ternperate  President.  Suppose  he  were  the  op- 
posite in  his  habits,  addicted  to  the  habitual  use  of  strong 
drink,  and  liable,  with  all  such  persons,  to  become  intem- 
perate, especially  when  the  great  pressure  and  excitement  of 
public  business  increases  the  craving  for  some  stimulus :  how 
much  greater  would  be  our  perils !  It  is  another  cause  for 
thankfulness  that  we  have  a  total-abstinence  man  in  this 
high  office.  We  know  that  his  brain  will  never  reel  under 
the  deadly  influence  of  strong  drink ;   that  he  will  not 


INTELLECTUAL  GREATXESS.         39 

become  disqualified  for  his  office  on  this  account.  Battles 
may  be  lost,  and  disaster  befall  our  arms  in  the  field,  in 
consequence  of  the  drunkenness  of  commanding  officers; 
but  the  Ship  of  State  will  never  founder  or  sink  because 
the  pilot  is  intoxicated.  A  clear  head  and  a  pure  heart, 
iron-clad  against  the  seductions  of  office  or  honor,  presides 
at  the  helm.  The  very  highest  authority  recognizes  tlie 
fact,  that  sucli  a  man  is  born  to  rule ;  or,  at  least,  that  the 
absence  of  self-government  exposes  the  ruler  and  his  cause 
to  ruin.  "  He  that  hath  no  rule  over  his  own  spirit  is  like 
a  city  that  is  broken  down  and  without  walls'' 


INTELLECTUAL    GREATXESS. 

The  enemies  of  Mr.  Lincoln  have  frequently  ridiculed 
his  mental  abilities.  Tlie  masterly  power  with  which  he 
has  handled  the  most  difficult  questions  of  his  Administra- 
tion is  a  sufficient  refutation  of  all  such  political  vitu- 
peration. Also,  before  he  was  elevated  to  this  post  of 
distinction,  it  was  demonstrated  that  he  was  mentally  able 
to  cope  with  his  most  formidable  adversaries.  His  memo- 
rable contest  with  Judge  Douglas,  in  Illinois,  proved  that 
he  was  superior  to  his  opponent.  If  Douglas  was  intel- 
lectually a  great  man,  as  no  person  will  doubt,  then  Abra- 
ham Lincoln  is  greater ;  for,  by  general  consent,  he  worsted 
the  judge  in  gyqtj  debate,  and  won  the  popular  vote  of  the 
State.  Even  many  of  the  friends  of  the  "Little  Giant" 
confessed  that  Mr.  Lincoln  left  him  in  a  dilapidated  condi- 
tion. No  man  can  read  these  debates,  with  an  unprejudiced 
mind,  without  according  to  the  conceded  victor  superiority 
of  intellect. 


40  THE   PIONEER   BOY   AS   PRESIDENT. 

A  distinguished  scholar,  who  listened  to  one  of  Ms 
speeches  in  that  remarkable  campaign,  says,  — 

"  He  then  proceeded  to  defend  the  Republican  party.  Here  he 
charged  Mr.  Douglas  with  doing  nothing  for  freedom  ;  with  disre- 
garding the  rights  and  interests  of  the  colored  man ;  and,  for  about 
forty  minutes,  he  spoke  with  a  power  that  we  have  seldom  heard 
equalled.  There  was  a  grandeur  in  his  thoughts,  a  comprehensive- 
ness in  his  arguments,  and  a  binding  force  in  liis  conclusions,  which 
were  perfectly  irresistible.  The  vast  throng  were  silent  as  death  : 
every  eye  was  fixed  upon  the  speaker,  and  all  gave  him  serious 
attention.  He  was  the  tall  man  eloquent :  his  countenance  glowed 
with  animation,  and  his  eye  ghstened  with  an  intelligence  that 
made  it  lustrous.  He  was  no  longer  awkward  and  ungainly,  but 
graceful,  bold,  commanding." 

It  was  in  one  of  these  powerful  debates  with  Mr.  Douglas 
that  he  paid  the  following  eloquent  tribute  to  the  Declara- 
tion of  Independence.  The  passage  is  alike  creditable  to 
his  mental  powers,  his  sympathy  for  the  colored  race,  his 
self-abnegation,  his  advocacy  of  principles  above  men,  and 
his  earnest  appeal  to  Republicans  to  stand  up  for  the  right. 
On  the  whole,  it  is  one  of  the  most  remarkable  passages  of 
forensic  eloquence  on  record. 

"These  communities  (the  thirteen  Colonies),  by  their  representa 
lives  in  old  Independence  Hall,  said  to  the  world  of  men,  '  We  hold 
these  truths  to  be  self-evident,  that  all  men  are  born  equal ;  that 
they  are  endowed  by  their  Creator  with  inalienable  rights ;  that 
among  these  are  life,  liberty,  and  the  pursuit  of  happiness.'  This 
was  their  majestic  interpretation  of  the  economy  of  the  universe. 
This  was  their  lofty  and  wise  and  noble  understanding  of  the  jus- 
tice of  the  Creator  to  his  creatures ;  yes,  gentlemen,  to  all  his 
creatures,  to  the  whole  great  family  of  man.  In  their  enlightened 
belief,  nothing  stamped  with  the  divine  image  and  likeness  was 
sent  into  the  world  to  be  trodden  on,  and  degraded  and  imbruted 
by  its  fellows.  They  grasped  not  only  the  race  of  men  then  living, 
but  they  reached  forward,  and  seized  upon  the  furthest  posterity. 


IXTELLECTU.VX  GREATNESS.  41 

They  created  a  beacon  to  guide  their  eliildren  and  their  children's 
children,  and  the  countless  niyriads  who  sliould  inhabit  the  earth 
In  other  ages.  Wise  statesmen  as  they  were,  they  knew  the  ten- 
dency of  prosperity  to  breed  tyrants;  and  so  they  established  these 
great  self-evident  truths,  that  when,  in  the  distant  future,  sonic 
man,  some  faction,  some  interest,  should  set  up  the  doctrine,  that 
none  but  rich  men,  or  none  but  white  men,  or  none  but  Anglo- 
Saxon  white  men,  were  entitled  to  life,  liberty,  and  the  pursuit  of 
liappiness,  their  posterity  might  look  up  again  to  the  Declaration 
of  Indei>endence,  and  take  courage  to  renew  the  battle  which  their 
fathers  began,  so  that  truth  and  justice  and  mercy,  and  all  the 
humane  and  Christian  virtues,  might  not  be  extinguished  from 
the  land ;  so  that  no  man  would  hereafter  dare  to  limit  and  circum- 
scribe the  great  principles  on  which  the  temple  of  Liberty  was 
being  built. 

"  Now,  my  countrymen,  if  you  have  been  taught  doctrines  con- 
flicting with  the  great  landmarks  of  the  Declaration  of  Independ- 
ence ;  if  you  have  listened  to  suggestions  which  would  tiike  away 
from  its  grandeur,  and  mutilate  the  fair  symmetry  of  its  propor- 
tions ;  if  you  have  been  inclined  to  believe  that  all  men  are  not 
created  equal  in  those  inalienable  rights  enumerated  by  our  chart 
of  Uberty,  —  let  me  entreat  you  to  come  back,  return  to  the  foun- 
tain whose  waters  spring  close  by  the  blood  of  the  Revolution. 
Think  nothing  of  me,  tiike  no  thought  for  the  political  fate  of  any 
man  whomsoever,  but  come  back  to  the  truths  that  are  in  the 
Declaration  of  Independence. 

"  You  may  do  any  thing  with  me  you  choose,  if  you  will  but 
heed  these  sacred  principles.  You  may  not  only  defeat  me  for  the 
Senate,  but  you  may  take  me  and  put  me  to  death.  While  pre- 
tending no  indifference  to  earthly  honors,  I  do  cluim  to  Ixj  actuated 
in  this  contest  by  something  higher  than  an  anxiety  for  office.  I 
charge  you  to  drop  every  paltry  and  insignificant  thought  for  any 
man's  success.  It  is  nothing ;  I  am  nothing ;  Judge  Douglas  is 
notliing.  But  do  not  destroy  that  immortal  emblem  of  humanity,  —  the 
Declaration  of  Amei-ican  Independence." 

"We  mifrlit  quote  the  words  of  many  tHstin;zul^lii'<l  .schol- 
ars and  statesmen   concerning   Mr.  Lincoln's   intellectual 


i2  THE   PIOXEER   BOY   AS   PRESIDENT. 

abilities ;  but  we  have  room  only  for  a  brief  paragraph  from 
a  speech  of  Senator  Trumbull :  — 

"  He  studied,  and  for  a  time  practised,  the  business  of  a  land- 
surveyor  ;  then  he  entered  into  the  study  of  the  law,  and  rapidly 
rose  to  the  high  distinction  of  the  ablest  lawyer  in  the  North-ivest.  He 
is  a  giant ;  and,  without  the  prefix  '  Little  '  to  it,  a  giant  in  intellect 
as  well  as  in  stature." 

Nor  is  this  high  opinion  of  him  confined  to  our  own 
country.  From  a  letter  of  the  Paris  correspondent  of  the 
"New- York  Times,"  we  learn  what  the  leading  men  of 
France,  who  have  -not  caught  the  mania  of  hostility  to 
our  form  of  Government,  think  of  our  President.  He 
writes,  — 

"  The  popularity  of  IVIr.  Lincoln  has  been  as  much  advanced 
abroad  by  his  late  acts  as  in  the  United  States.  His  maintenance 
of  the  act  of  emancipation  in  his  Annual  IMessage  has  given  im- 
mense satisfaction  to  all  those  not  prejudiced  by  special  reasons  for 
the  Rebelhon ;  and  Ms  sagacity,  straightforwardness,  and  honesty, 
in  the  midst  of  such  confusion  and  excitement,  called  from  i\L 
Laboulaye  the  other  day,  at  the  College  de  France,  before  an 
immense  audience  of  the  ^lite  of  the  intellectual  world,  the  ex- 
clamation, that  Mr.  Lincoln  was  '  a  greater  man  than  Caesar ! '  So, 
too,  I  heard  a  leading  French  pohtician  say  lately,  '  You  Americans 
don't  appreciate  Mr.  Lincoln  at  his  proper  value.  No  monarch  in 
Europe  could  carry  on  such  a  colossal  war  in  front,  while  harassed 
by  so  many  factions  and  fault-finders  behind.  No  :  you  don't  give 
him  his  due.'  From  a  European  point  of  view,  the  merit  of  Mr. 
Lincoln  is,  in  effect,  immense ;  but,  in  a  republic,  it  is  the  people, 
and  not  the  President,  who  carry  on  the  war.  The  personal  com- 
pliment paid  to  Mr.  Lincoln  in  the  above  remark,  is,  however,  none 
the  less  valuable ;  and,  on  every  side,  I  hear  people  begin  to  say, 
that  INIr.  Lincoln  will  merit  more  than  a  biography  :  he  will  merit  a 
history." 

«  A  GREATER  MAN  THAN  CiESAR  !  "     This  may  not  be 


ILLUSTILVTIVE   ANECDOTES.  43 

true  ;  but  it  is  the  opiuloii  of  a  distinguLsbed  Frenchman  in 
his  o^vn  country. 

SimiUir  sentiments  have  been  expressed  in  England 
again  and  again  by  pubhc  men,  though  we  have  room  but 
for  a  single  quotation.  Goldwin  Smith,  Esq.,  an  English- 
man of  decided  ability,  has,  in  a  recent  "  Letter  to  a 
Whig  Member  of  the  Southern  Independence  Association," 
made  so  fair  and  noble  a  plea  for  our  loyal  cause,  that 
he  deserves  the  gratitude  of  every  American  patriot.  Of 
the  President  he  says,  — 

"  He  was  chosen  out  of  the  mass  by  tlie  ordinary  method  of 
election,  not  called  forth  to  meet  a  terrible  emergency ;  yet  he  has 
met  the  most  terrible  of  all  emergencies  with  sense  and  self-posses- 
sion, OS  well,  probably,  as  it  would  have  been  met  by  any  European 
sovereiyn  or  statesman  whom  you  could  name. 


ILLUSTRATIVE    ANECDOTES. 

Again :  Mr.  Lincoln  has  been  represented  as  a  great 
story-teller ;  and  the  press  has  teemed  with  anecdotes 
ascribed  to  him,  until  many  conclude  that  he  never  speaks 
without  telling  a  story.  A  very  erroneous  idea  has  thus 
been  impressed  upon  the  public  mind.  That  Mr.  Lincoln 
possesses  a  remarkable  facility  for  using  anecdotes  to  illus- 
trate his  subject,  and  that  he  has  few  equals  in  the  pleasant 
repartee,  we  admit ;  but  he  has  not  the  habit  of  employing 
these  on  all  occasions,  important'  and  unimportant,  as 
many  letter  -  writers  assert.  AVe  have  the  authority  of 
his  most  intimate  friends,  who  have  been  more  with  him, 
and  seen  more  of  him,  than  any  other  persons,  for  making 
this  denial.  Many  of  the  anecdotes,  too,  which  are  as- 
cribed to  him  by  the  press,  he  never  uttered :  they  were 


44  THE    PIOXEER   BOY   AS    PRESIDENT. 

manufactured  by  sensational  writers.  We  have  the  very 
highest  authority  for  asserting,  that  of  one  column  and  a 
naif  of  anecdotes,  published  last  winter  in  the  "'  New- York 
Evening  Post,"  and  accredited  to  Mr.  Lincoln,  only  two  of 
them  are  Ins.  And  the  same  is  true  of  a  pamphlet  re- 
cently issued  in  New  York,  entitled  "  Old  Abe's  Jokes." 
Only  a  fractional  part  of  them  have  the  least  foundation  in 
truth. 

Those  coarse,  vulgar,  and  almost  profane  anecdotes  as- 
cribed to  him  by  the  press  are  fabrications.  His  stories 
and  repartees  are  always  pointed,  pure,  and  honorable. 
He  never  descends  to  undignified  and  low  illustrations  to 
point  an  argument  or  afford  entertainment. 

Among  the  good  stories  ascribed  to  him,  and  correctly 
BO,  are  the  following,  which  we  think  the  reader  will  say 
are  no  disparagement  to  the  President's  head  or  heart :  — 

"  A  gentleman  called  upon  the  President,  and  sohcited  a  pass  for 
Kiclmiond.  '  Well/  said  the  President,  '  I  would  be  very  happy  to 
oblige,  if  my  passes  were  respected ;  but  the  fact  is,  sir,  I  have, 
within  the  past  two  years,  given  passes  to  two  hundred  and  fifty 
thousand  men  to  go  to  Richmond,  and  not  one  has  got  there 
yet.' 

"  "When  the  Sherman  Expedition,  which  captured  Port  Poyal, 
was  fitting,  there  was  great  curiosit}'  to  learn  where  it  had  gone. 
A  person,  visiting  the  Chief  Magistrate  at  the  "White  House,  im- 
portuned liim  to  disclose  the  destination  to  him.  '  Will  you  keep 
it  entirely  secret  ? '  asked  the  President.  '  Oh,  yes  !  upon  my 
honor.'  —  'Well,'  said  the  President,  'I'll  tell  you,'  Assuming  an 
air  of  great  mystery,  and  drawing  the  man  close  to  him,  he  kept 
him  a  moment  awaiting  the  revelation  with  an  open  mouth  and 
great  anxiety.  '  Well,'  said  he  in  a  loud  whisper  which  was  heard 
all  over  the  room,  '  the  expedition  has  gone  to  —  sea ! '  " 

As  a  very  pleasant  way  of  rebuking  that  annoyance  to 
which  Mr.  Lincoln  has  been  subjected,  we  think  the  above 


ILLUSTILVTIVE   ^V^ECDOTES.  45 

examples  are  worthy  of  imitation ;  and,  for  exposing  the 
unreasonableness  of  many  complaints  to  which  he  has  been 
obliged  to  listen,  the  following  are  excellent :  — 

"  On  a  late  occasion,  when  the  White  House  was  open  to  the 
public,  a  fanner  from  one  of  tlie  border  counties  of  Virginia  told 
the  President,  that  the  Union  soldiers,  in  passing  his  farm,  had 
helped  themselves,  not  only  to  hay,  but  to  his  hor&e ;  and  he  hoped 
the  President  would  urge  the  proper  officer  to  consider  his  claim 
mimediately. 

"  '  Why,  my  dear  sir,'  replied  Mr.  Lincoln  blandly,  *  I  couldn't 
think  of  such  a  thing.  If  I  consider  individual  cases,  I  should  find 
work  enough  for  twenty  Presidents.' 

"  The  man  urged  liis  needs  persistently.  Mr.  Lincoln  dechned 
good-naturedly. 

"  '  But,'  said  the  persevering  sufferer, '  couldn't  you  just  give  me 
a  line  to  Col. about  it  ?  just  one  hne  1 ' 

"'Ha,  ha!'  responded  Mr.  Lincoln,  crossing  his  legs  the  other 
way,  *  that  reminds  me  of  Jack  Chase,  of  Illinois.  He  was  lum- 
berman on  the  Illinois ;  and  he  was  steady  and  sober,  and  the  best 
raftsman  on  the  river.  It  was  quite  a  trick,  twenty-five  years  ago, 
to  take  the  logs  over  the  rapids ;  but  he  was  skilful  with  a  raft,  and 
always  kept  her  straight  in  the  channel.  Finally  a  steamer  was 
put  on,  and  Jack  (he's  dead  now,  poor  fellow  !)  was  made  captain 
of  her.  He  always  used  to  take  the  wheel,  going  through  the 
rapids.  One  day,  when  the  boat  was  plunging  and  wallowing 
along  the  boiling  current,  and  his  utmost  vigilance  was  being  exer- 
cised to  keep  her  in  the  narrow  channel,  a  boy  pulled  his  coat, 
exclaiming,  '  Say,  captain,  I  wish  you  would  just  stop  the  boat  a 
minute  :  I've  lost  my  apple  overboard  !  ' 

"  Some  gentlemen  were  present  at  the  White  House,  from  the 
West,  excited  and  troubled  about  the  commissions  or  omissions  of 
the  Administration.  The  President  heard  them  patiently,  and  then 
replied  :  '  Gentlemen,  suppose  all  the  property  you  were  worth  was 
in  gold,  and  you  had  put  it  in  the  hands  of  Blondin  to  carry  across 
the  Niagara  Kiver  on  a  rope  :  would  you  shake  the  cable,  or  keep 
shouting  out  to  him,  "  Blondin !  stand  up  a  httle  straighter ;  Blondin ! 
Stoop  a  httle  more,  go  a  httle  faster,  lean  a  Uttle  more  to  the  nortli, 


46  THE   PIONEER  BOY   AS   PRESIDENT. 

lean  a  little  more  to  the  south  "1  No :  you  would  hold  your  breath, 
as  well  as  your  tongue,  and  keep  your  hands  off  imtil  he  was  safe 
over..  The  Government  are  carrying  an  immense  weight.  Untold 
treasures  are  in  their  hands.  They  are  doing  the  very  best  they 
can.  Don't  badger  them.  Keep  silence,  and  we'll  get  you  safe 
across.'  This  simple  illustration  answered  the  complaints  of  half 
an  hour,  and  not  only  silenced  but  charmed  the  audience." 


HIS    ADMINISTRATION. 

The  success  of  Mr.  Lincoln's  Administration  can  be 
measured  only  by  considering  the  difficulties  which  he  has 
overcome.  No  ruler  ever  entered  upon  Lis  office  with 
more  to  dishearten  and  embarrass.  The  outgoing  Adminis- 
tration had  proved  treacherous  and  abominably  corrupt. 
Treason  was  perpetrated  in  the  cabinet,  with  the  consent, 
if  not  with  the  complicity,  of  the  imbecile  President. 
Secretary  Cobb  bad  robbed  the  public  treasury  of  six 
millions  of  dollars,  and  well-nigh  plunged  the  nation  into 
bankruptcy ;  Secretary  Floyd  had  stolen  one  hundred  and 
fifteen  thousand  stands  of  arms  from  our  arsenals,  and  sent 
them  South;  Secretary  Toucey,  though  a  New-England 
man,  (shame  on  his  treasonable  deeds !)  had  sent  all  our 
navy,  except  two  vessels,  into  distant  ports,  whence  they 
could  not  readily  be  recalled;  and  President  Buchanan 
had  winked  at  this  barefaced  treason  in  his  cabinet,  either 
from  shameful  cowardice,  or  wicked  sympathy  with  the 
conspirators  in  their  hellish  plot. 

The  departments  of  State  at  Washington  were  filled 
with  traitors.  Every  day  they  were,  resigning  their  posts, 
and  going  South  to  join  the  rebels.  It  was  almost  impos- 
sible to  tell  who  were  loyal,  and  who  were  not.  Few 
clerks,  comparatively,  were  free  from  suspicion. 


HIS    ADMIXISTRATIOX.  47 

Thus  Presiclent  Lincoln  fouml  an  empty  treasury,  empty 
arsenals,  a  scattered  navy,  and  treasonable  servants,  on 
assuming  the  duties  of  his  olfice.  He  could  command 
scarcely  men  and  means  sufficient  for  the  defence  of  the 
capital.  The  credit  of  the  Government,  also,  had  beeu 
impaired  by  the  infamous  conduct  of  Buchanan's  cabinet ; 
and  how  to  raise  money  to  carry  on  the  war  was  a  per- 
plexing question  to  be  answered. 

Nor  was  tlie  most  dangerous  foe  in  his  front.  In  his 
rear,  at  the  North,  were  thousands  of  misguided  partisans, 
whose  sympathies  were  with  the  rebels,  and  whose  efforts 
to  embarrass  the  Administration  ought  to  have  doomed 
tliem  to  a  felon's  cell.  They  w^ere  but  a  division  or  wing 
of  the  great  Southern  army  of  traitoi-s,  seeking  to  destroy 
the  nation  by  a  flank  movement,  in  which  the  infamy  of 
their  political  spite  was  manifest. 

The  rebels,  too,  had  seized  many  of  our  forts  and  arse- 
nals, together  with  custom-houses  and  other  public  build- 
ings, and  unfurled  the  flag  of  Secession  on  almost  every 
foot  of  slave  territory.  The  Border  States  were  mainly 
in  their  possession,  and  they  really  expected  to  carry  the 
whole  of  them  out  of  the  Union.  To  this  end,  fraud, 
violence,  and  bloodshed  were  employed  without  let  or 
hinderance. 

Then  England  and  France  were  conniving  with  the 
South,  and  complicating  our  national  affairs  by  their  un- 
generous and  inconsistent  acts.  At  a  time  when  they 
ought  to  have  expressed  their  unfeigned  friendship  for  our 
endangered  Government,  they  basely  lent  their  influence 
to  the  South,  in  order  to  hasten  the  overthrow  of  this  rival 
nation. 

Thus   Mr.   Lincoln  was   reduced   to   the   necessity  of 


48  THE    PIONEER   BOY   AS   PRESIDEXT. 

creating  an  army  and  navy,  a  national  credit  and  treasury, 
in  order  to  inspire  confidence  at  home  and  abroad,  that  the 
flag  of  the  Union  might  be  carried  back  in  triumph  over 
the  whole  area  of  Rebellion. 

Never  did  such  a  task  devolve  upon  a  ruler  before ;  and 
how  well  he  has  succeeded,  let  the  hopeful  position  of  our 
cause  at  the  present  time,  the  confidence  of  civilian  and 
soldier,  the  success  of  our  arms  in  recovering  most  of  the 
forts  and  arsenals  held  by  the  insurgents,  with  three- 
fourths  of  the  territory  which  they  controlled  at  the  com- 
mencement of  the  war,  —  let  these  achievements  answer. 
Let  the  improved  condition  of  our  foreign  relations,  in 
which  Southern  duplicity  has  been  exposed  by  Northern 
vigilance  and  uprightness,  bear  testimony  to  Mr.  Lincoln's 
sagacity.  And,  above  all,  let  the  progress  of  freedom,  and 
the  wonderful  change  of  public  opinion  on  the  question  of 
slavery,  keeping  pace  with  Mr.  Lincoln's  Administration, 
as  well  as  the  advancement  of  the  national  credit,  and  the 
utter  discomfiture  of  rebel  sympathizers  at  the  North,  — 
let  these  results  settle  the  question  of  his  success. 

We  repeat,  history  does  not  furnish  another  example  of 
a  nation  conducting  such  a  mighty  struggle  with  an  army 
and  navy  extemporized  as  by  the  power  of  an  enchanter, 
and  all  the  while  wonderfully  developing  its  moral  and 
physical  resources,  and  rising  higher  and  higher  in  national 
greatness  as  the  struggle  grows  in  magnitude  and  des- 
peration; and  for  this  the  country  is  more  indebted  to 
Abraham  Lincoln,  whose  hope  and  courage,  sagacity  and 
prudence,  honesty  and  mental  ability,  have  conducted  the 
campaign,  than  to  any  other  man. 

A  writer  in  the  "North-American  Review"  says, "  Hither- 
to the  wisdom  of  the  President's  measures  has  been  justified 


HIS    ADMIXISTIIATION".  49 

by' the  fact,  that  they  have  always  resulted  in  more  firmly 
uniting  public  opinion."  This  is  the  highest  proof  of  his 
statesmanship.  With  two  violent  factions  on  almost  every 
question  pressing  their  respective  claims,  he  has  pursued 
an  even-handed  course,  that  has  disarmed  their  animosity, 
and  resulted  in  greater  hai-mony.  How  often  has  it  been 
said  of  this  and  that  measure  of  the  President,  "  It  will 
divide  the  North,  and  distract  the  country"!  This  was 
said  of  the  draft,  the  release  of  Mason  and  Slidell,  the  sus- 
pension of  the  writ  of  habeas  corpus,  the  proclamation  of 
emancipation,  and  the  employment  of  soldiers  in  the  army. 
But  when  and  where  have  these  measures  divided  the  loyal 
people  ?  They  were  never  so  well  united  as  now.  In  all 
these  measures  they  have  acquiesced  ;  and  there  is,  at  pre- 
sent, greater  unanimity  with  them  than  there  could  have 
been  without  them.  The  complaints  against  coercion  long 
since  died  away,  and  emancipation  is  very  generally  ac- 
cepted as  the.  legitimate  result  of  the  war.  At  fii-st,  there 
was  a  great  outcry  against  receiving  slaves  into  our  lines ; 
but  now  they  are  armed  and  equipped  according  to  law, 
and  eulogized  for  their  courage  in  battle.  The  same  fault- 
finders, who  thought  that  the  nation  would  tumble  to  pieces 
if  colored  men  were  employed  as  soldiers,  are  now  among 
the  loudest  in  their  praise  of  negro  bravery. 

It  is  quit^  amusing  to  review  the  charges  that  have  been 
brought  against  Mr.  Lincoln.  One  side  has  accused  him 
of  being  too  conservative  ;  the  other,  of  being  too  radical. 
The  conservatives  charged  him  with  waging  war  for  the 
destruction  of  slavery :  the  radicals  denounced  him  for 
doing  little  or  nothing  for  liberty.  One  party  have  called 
him  a  tyrant  and  usurper :  another  has  complained  of  his 
leniency  toward  traitors  and  their  sympathizers.     He  has 

3 


50  THE   PIONEER   BOY   AS   PRESIDEXT. 

gone  too  fast  for  some :  he  has  been  altogether  too  slow 
for  others.  Many  have  cursed  his  warlike  propensities; 
not  a  few  have  deplored  his  disposition  to  adopt  pacific 
measures.  With  some,  his  despotic  rule  endangered  our 
liberties ;  w^ith  others,  they  were  imperilled  for  the  want 
of  it.  Thus  it  has  been,  pro  and  con. ;  and  still  the  Presi- 
dent has  pursued  the  even  tenor  of  his  way,  consulting  his 
cabinet,  hearing  complaints,  judging  for  himself,  studying 
Providence,  and  looking  to  God  for  success  ;  and  now  all 
these  matters  of  violent  discussion  are  well-nigh  obsolete 
in  the  progress  of  events,  and  the  people  are  rallying 
around  their  noble  standard-bearer  with  more  harmony 
than  the  most  sanguine  of  them  ever  anticipated.  We  do 
not  assert  that  all  the  glory  of  this  remarkable  change  and 
union  should  be  ascribed  to  Mr.  Lincoln ;  for,  with  him, 
we  recognize  a  higher  agency  in  this  wonderful  revolution. 
In  regard  to  Mr.  Lincoln's  success  and  popularity,  even 
the  New- York  correspondent  of  the  "London  Times"  wrote, 
months  ago,  before  the  oposition  was  stimulated  by  the 
thought  of  the  next  Presidential  election :  — 

"  There  can  be  no  doubt  that  the  President  is  the  most  popular 
man  in  the  United  States.  Without  education  or  marked  ability, 
without  the  personal  advantages  of  a  fine  presence  or  courteous 
manners,  and  placed  unexpectedly  in  a  position  of  unparalleled  dif- 
ficulty and  danger,  he  has  so  conducted  himself,  amid  the  storm  of 
passion  that  rages  around  him,  as  to  have  won  the  good  opinion 
of  everybody, 

"  There  is  not  a  journal  in  the  country  that  speaks  of  him,  except 
with  high  respect ;  there  is  not  a  soldier  in  the  field  who  does  not 
love  and  honor  him ;  and  there  is  not  a  man  in  private  life,  what- 
ever may  be  liis  pohtical  opinions,  or  his  views  upon  the  origin, 
conduct,  or  progress  of  the  war,  who  does  not  cheerfully  admit 
that  Mr.  Lincoln  has  shown  himself  equal  to  his  work,  and  rescued 
the  presidential  office  fi"om  the  contempt  into  which  it  was  falling. 


HIS    ADMINISTRATION.  51 

"  The  explanation  is  to  be  found  in  his  manly  common  sense  and 
his  unquestionable  honesty.  Incorrui)t  amid  the  corruption,  perse- 
Tering  amid  the  vacillation,  and  sinjjle-minded  amid  the  false 
pertence  and  tortuous  double-dealing,  of  three-fourths  of  the  public 
men  with  whom  he  has  been  brouj^ht  into  contact,  he  has  concen- 
trated upon  himsflf,  without  seeking  it,  an  amount  of  confidence 
that  Washington  himself  never  enjoyed,  and  of  popularity  that  was 
only  heaped  upon  that  patriot's  memory  after  death  had  sanctified 
his  claim  to  veneration." 

The  heartless  in.«incerity  of  the  men  who  have  raised 
the  cry  of  "  Peace,  peace  !  "  against  Mr.  Lincohi's  Adminis- 
tration, is  sufficiently  exposed  by  the  gross  inconsistency  of 
their  deeds.  When  men  like  Franklin  Pierce,  who  {dayed 
his  part  in  t!ie  infamous  Mexican  War,  tliat  can  be  defended 
by  no  principles  of  humanity  or  righteousness,  talk  about 
the  injustice  and  cruelty  of  warring  against  the  rebels,  it 
is  j>lain  to  see  their  meaning.  It  is  not  probable  that 
politicians  of  the  baser  sort,  hke  Seymour  and  AVoods,  who 
connived  at  the  violence  and  murder  of  a  New- York  mob, 
are  very  conscientious  in  their  denunciation  of  the  Presi- 
dent's way  of  putting  down  the  Rebellion.  Men  who 
have  no  scruples  in  creating  animosities,  and  fomenting 
strife  at  the  Xorlh,  cannot  be  very  honest  in  their  fears 
that  the  Government  will  not  deal  justly  and  mercifully 
Avith  the  rebel  South.  The  sham  of  all  such  opposition  to 
the  Administration  is  apparent ;  and  the  major  part  of  the 
hostility  to  Mr.  Lincoln  is  precisely  of  this  character. 

The  writer  in  the  "  North-American  Review  "  to  whom 
we  have  referred  has  so  ha})pily  rebuked  one  or  two  things 
in  this  line  of  opposition,  that  we  make  a  brief  quotation. 
Speaking  of  Mr.  Lincoln  and  his  enemies,  he  says,  — 

"  At  first  he  was  so  slow,  that  he  tired  out  all  those  who  see  no 
eridence  of  progress  but  in  blowing  up  the  engine ;  then  he  was  so 


52  TUE   riOXEER   BOY   AS   PRESIDENT. 

fast,  that  he  took  the  breath  away  from  those  who  think  there  is 
no  getting  on  safely  while  there  is  a  spark  of  fire  under  the  boilers. 
God  is  the  only  being  who  has  time  enough ;  but  a  prudent  man, 
■who  knows  how  to  seize  occasion,  can  commonly  make  a  shift  to 
find  as  much  as  he  needs.  Mr.  Lincoln,  as  it  seems  to  us  in  re- 
viewing his  career,  though  we  have  sometimes  in  our  impatience 
thought  otherwise,  has  always  waited,  as  a  wise  man  should,  till 
the  right  moment  brought  up  all  his  reserves." 

Again :  "  We  have  no  sympathy  to  spare  for  the  pretended 
anxieties  of  men,  who,  only  two  years  gone,  were  willing  that 
Jefferson  Davis  should  break  all  the  Ten  Commandments  together, 
and  would  now  impeach  ]Mr.  Lincoln  for  a  scratch  on  the  surface  of 
the  tables  where  they  are  engraved." 

This  class  of  people  are  the  authors  of  the  wail  that  has 
been  raised  against  "  arbitrary  arrests,"  as  they  call  them. 
Because  the  President,  faithful  to  his  oath  of  office,  which 
obligates  him  to  set  aside  the  writ  of  habeas  corpus  when 
it  is  necessary  for  the  public  safety,  has  arrested  men  who 
are  in  complicity  with  the  rebels,  and  doing  all  they  can  to 
aid  the  enemies  of  their  country,  this  groundless  and 
miserable  cry  of  hostility  has  been  raised.  True  loyal 
souls,  all  through  the  free  States,  feel  that,  if  more  South- 
ern traitors,  like  Marshal  Kane,  Vallandigham,  and  their 
associate  conspirators,  had  been  arrested  and  imprisoned,  it 
would  not  only  have  been  an  act  of  clear  justice,  but  our 
cause  would  have  been  greatly  promoted.  The  loyal  peo- 
ple generally  approve  these  arrests  of  treasonable  men,  and 
posterity  will  wonder  that  no  more  of  this  class  were 
deprived  of  their  liberty  to  aid  the  rebels. 

The  enemies  of  the  Administration  made  all  the  tumult 
possible  over  the  President's  suspension  of  the  writ  of 
habeas  corpus,  when  they  knew  perfectly  well,  or  ought  to 
have  known,  that  it  was  done  under  tliat  provision  of  the 


HIS   ADMINISTRATION.  53 

Constitution,  wliich,  in  cases  of  inva-^ioii  or  rclK-llioii,  per- 
mit:* the  writ  to  be  suspended  wlien  the  public  sjilety 
requires  it  Also  an  act  of  Congress,  appmved  ^larch  3, 
1863,  empowered  the  President  to  put  iu  force  thia 
safeguard.  In  his  opinion,  and  in  the  oi)inion  of  all  true, 
loyal  men,  the  time  had  come  for  using  this  stringent 
measure  of  public  defence.  The  very  men  who  raised  the 
outcry  against  the  President  for  this  fearless  act  were 
doing  all  they  could  to  discourage  enlistments,  multiply 
deserters,  and  embarrass  the  Government ;  and  the  wis- 
dom of  this  act  of  Mr.  Lincoln  is  learned  from  the  fact, 
that  it  greatly  circumscribed  their  traitorous  business. 
The  country  hits  reason  to  rt-joice  that  the  President  had 
the  boldness  to  adopt  this  necessary  measure. 

The  friends  of  Gen.  M'Clellan  have  attempted  to  shield 
him  from  disgrace  by  asserting  that  the  President  inter- 
fered with  his  plans,  and  did  not  sustain  him.  Happily, 
we  have  a  tribunal  that  proves  the  injustice  and  falsehood 
of  this  allegation.  The  testimony  before  the  Congres- 
sional Committee  on  the  Conduct  of  the  War  shows  that 
Gen.  IM'Clellan  had  his  own  way,  and  was  amply  sustained 
by  the  President  and  "War  Department.  (See  Part  I.  of 
Re|X)rt  on  Conduct  of  the  War.)  Indeed,  that  Report  does 
much  more.  It  proves,  by  the  most  incontrovertible  evi- 
dence, that  the  President  is  a  more  competent  military 
leader  than  M'Clellan  himself,  if  the  latter  was  fincere  in 
all  his  measures.  I^t  the  reader  mark  well  this  point. 
.We  assert,  and  will  prove,  that,  if  Gen.  M'Clellan  was 
tincere  in  his  views  and  measures,  I^Ir.  Lincoln  is  the 
better  general  of  the  two.  Among  the  many  points  of 
interest  established  before  the  Committee  are  the  fol- 
lowing :  — 


54  THE   PIONEER  BOY   AS   PRESIDENT. 

The  President  urged  that  so  large  an  ai-my  should  be 
divided  into  corps,  for  the  better  handling  of  it ;  and  every 
military  officer  whom  he  consulted  indorsed  his  opinion. 
Yet  Gen.  M'Clellan  steadily  opposed  the  measure  ;  so  that, 
as  the  Committee  on  the  Conduct  of  the  War  say  (Part  I. 
page  7),  "the  division  of  the  army  corps  was  not  even 
begun  until  after  the  movement  of  the  army  in  March 
(18G2)  had  commenced,  and  then  only  in  pursuance  of  the 
direct  and  repeated  orders  of  the  President." 

The  Committee  add,  "  Gen.  M'Clellan,  however,  con- 
tinued to  oppose  the  organization  of  the  army  into  army 
corps,  as  will  be  seen  from  the  following  despatch  to  him 
from  the  Secretary  of  War,  dated  May  9,  1862 :  — 

"  The  President  is  unwilling  to  have  the  army-corps  organiza- 
tion broken  up  (M'Clellan  insisted  upon  breaking  it  up) ;  and  yet  he 
is  unwilling  that  the  commanding-general  shall  be  trammelled  and 
embarrassed  in  actual  skirmishing,  collision  with  the  enemy,  and  on 
the  eve  of  an  expected  great  battle.  You,  therefore,  may  tempora- 
rily suspend  that  organization  in  the  army  under  your  immediate 
command,  and  adopt  any  you  see  fit,  imtil  further  orders." 

Gen.  M'Clellan  stood  alone  in  his  views  upon  this  sub- 
ject, while  the  views  of  the  President  w^ere  sustained  by 
every  other  general.  The  Committee  say,  that  the  testi- 
mony of  the  generals  before  them  was  "  remarkably  unani- 
mous" for  the  army  corps.  Subsequent  experience,  too, 
has  sustained  the  President's  measure.  The  President 
said,  in  his  letter  to  Gen.  M'Clellan  of  May  9,  1862,  "I 
ordered  the  army-corps  organization,  not  only  on  the  unani-, 
mous  opinion  of  the  twelve  generals  of  divisions,  but  also 
on  the  unanimous  opinion  of  every  military  man  I  could 
get  an  opinion  from,  and  every  modern  military  authority, 
yourself  only  excepted." 


HIS    ADMINISTRATION.  55 

Again:  in  tlie  fall  of  ISO],  the  President  desired  to 
adopt  measuros  to  prevent  the  relx'l.s  blockading  the  Poto- 
mac. Subsequently  he  seconded  tlie  efforts  of  the  Navy 
Department  to  efV«'ct  this  object,  which  could  be  accom- 
plished only  by  the  combined  action  of  the  army  and  navy. 
But  Gen.  M'Clellan  opposed  the  measure ;  and  fmally,  by 
duplicity,  frustrated  the  whole  plan  :  wliereupon,  tlie  Com- 
mittee say,  "  Capt.  Craven  threw  ip  his  command  on  the 
Potomac,  and  applied  to  be  sent  to  sea ;  saying,  that  by 
remaining  here,  and  doing  nothing,  he  was  but  losing  his 
own  reputation,  as  the  blame  for  permitting  the  Potomac 
to  be  blockaded  would  be  imputed  to  him,  and  to  the 
flotilla  under  his  command."  (See  Report  on  Conduct  of 
the  War,  Part  I.  pp.  7-9.) 

If  the  views  of  the  President  had  been  carried  out, 
instead  of  Gen.  M'Clellan's,  the  country  would  never  have 
experienced  the  mortification  of  seeing  the  Potomac  block- 
aded for  montlis. 

Again:  the  President  was  opposed  to  the  do-nothing 
policy  of  M'Clellan  through  the  winter  of  'Gl  and  'G2. 
He  believed  that  the  rebels  should  be  attacked  at  Manas- 
sas, arid  not  allowed  to  escape ;  and  his  opinion  was  sus- 
tained by  the  testimony  of  the  best  generals  before  the 
Committee.  The  President  wrote  to  Gen.  M'Clellan,  when 
the  hitter  was  before  Yorktow^n,  "You  will  do  me  the 
justice  to  remember,  that  I  always  wished  not  going  down 
the  bay  in  search  of  a  field,  instead  of  fghting  at  or  near 
Manassas^  as  only  shifting^  and  not  surmounting,  a  dilR- 
culty;  that  we  should  find  the  same  enemy,  and  the  same 
or  equal  intrenchments,  at  either  jilace."  (Conduct  of  the 
War,  Part  I.  p.  18.) 

The  country  and  our  ablest  generals  were  long  since 


56  THE    PIONEER    BOY   AS    PRESIDEXT. 

convinced  that  the  President  was  right,  and  Gen.  M'Clel- 
lan  wrong. 

Gen.  M'Clellan  differed  with  the  President  in  re- 
spect to  the  time  of  moving  the  army  of  the  Potomac. 
M'Clellan  was  for  delay;  the  President,  ior  action.  The 
former  believed  that  our  cause  gained  by  delay :  the  latter 
was  satisfied  that  it  lost  by  delay.  Therefore  the  Commit- 
tee say,  "On  the  19th  of  January,  1862,  the  President  of 
the  United  States,  as  Commander-in-chief  of  the  Army  and 
Navy,  issued  orders  for  a  general  movement  for  all  the 
armies  of  the  United  States,  one  result  of  which  was 
the  series  of  victories  at  Fort  Henry,  Fort  Donelson,  &c., 
which  so  electrified  the  country,  and  revived  the  hopes  of 
every  loyal  man  in  the  land."  (Conduct  of  the  War, 
Part  I.  p.  9.) 

If  the  President  had  entertained  the  views  of  Gen. 
M'CleUan,  such  cheering  results  would  not  have  electrified 
the  country;  and,  if  Gen.  M'Clellan  had  moved  his  army 
as  early  as  the  President  desired,  a  decisive  battle  might 
have  been  fought  at  Manassas.  Certainly  a  defeat  there 
could  have  been  no  worse  for  us  than  the  mortifying  failure 
of  the  Peninsula  campaign. 

The  President,  too,  differed  from  M'Clellan  in  his  plan 
to  capture  Eichmond,  ahhough  he  did  not  insist  that  his 
plan  should  be  adopted.  But  the  following  letter,  from  the 
President  to  Gen.  M'Clellan,  on  the  subject,  is  not  ex- 
celled by  any  military  epistle  which  Gen.  M'Clellan  has 
written,  in  comprehensiveness,  practical  wisdom,  and  fore- 
sight :  — 

Executive  Mansion, 

Washington,  Feb.  3, 1862. 

My  dear  Sir,  —  You  and  I  have  distinct  and  different  plana 
for  a  movement  of  the  Army  of  tlie  Potomac,  —  yomrs  to  be  down 


HIS   ADMIXISTRATION.  57 

the  Chesapeake,  up  the  Rappahannock  to  Urbanna,  and  across  land 
to  the  terminus  of  the  railroad  on  York  River ;  mine  to  move 
directly  to  a  point  on  the  railroad  soutli-west  of  Manassas.  1£  yon 
will  give  me  satisfactory  answers  to  the  following  questions,  I  will 
gladly  yield  my  plan  to  yours  :  — 

1.  Does  not  your  plan  involve  a  greatly  larger  expenditure  of 
time  and  money  than  mine  ? 

2.  Wherein  is  a  victory  more  certain  by  your  plan  than  mine  ? 

3.  Wherein  is  a  victory  more  valuable  by  your  plan  than  mine  ? 

4.  In  fact,  would  it  not  be  less  valuable  in  this,  that  it  would 
break  no  great  line  of  the  enemy's  communication,  while  mine 
would  ? 

5.  In  case  of  disaster,  would  not  a  safe  retreat  be  more  diflBcidt 
by  your  plan  than  by  mine  1 

Yours  truly,  A.  Lincoln. 

Major-Gen.  M'Clellax. 

Again :  the  President  differed  with  Gen.  M'Clellan  in 
respect  to  the  manner  of  attacking  Yorktown.  Mr.  Lin- 
coln did  not  wish  that  he  should  determine  upon  a  siege, 
believing  that  the  line  of  the  enemy's  works  might  be 
pierced  there,  and  Yorktown  be  isolated,  cutting  off  re- 
enforcements,  and  thereby  capturing  the  whole  rebel  force. 
The  testimony  before  the  Congressional  Committee  proved 
that  the  best  officers  of  the  army  were  of  the  President's 
opinion ;  and  Gen.  Hamilton  made  an  application  for  per- 
mission to  pierce  the  enemy's  line  of  works  with  his  division  ; 
but  Gen.  M'Clellan  took  no  notice  of  it.  The  best  officers 
testified  that  the  siege  of  four  weeks  demoralized  the  army 
more  than  an  unsuccessful  assault  would  have  done.  It 
was  proved,  also,  that  the  place  was  not  re-enforced  until 
after  the  rebels  saw  that  a  siege  was  determined  upon,  so 
that  it  would  have  easily  fallen. 

The  rebel  Gen.  Magruder,  who  commanded  at  York- 
town,  said  in  his  official  Report,  "  His  [M'Clellan's]  skir- 
3* 


58  THE    riONEER   BOY   AS   PRESIDENT. 

mishers  were  all  thrown  forward  on  this  and  the  suc- 
ceeding day,  and  energetically  felt  our  whole  line,  but  were 
everywhere  repulsed  by  the  steadiness  of  our  troops.  Thus 
with  five  thousand  men,  exclusive  of  the  garrisons,  we 
stopped  and  held  in  check  over  one  hundred  thousand  of 
the  enemy.  Every  preparation  was  made  in  anticipation 
of  another  attack  by  the  enemy.  The  men  slept  in  the 
trenches  and  under  arms ;  but,  to  my  utter  surprise,  he  per- 
mitted  day  after  day  to  elapse  without  an  assault.  In  a 
few  days,  the  object  of  this  delay  was  apparent.  In  every 
direction,  in  front  of  our  lines,  through  the  intervening 
woods  and  along  the  open  fields,  earthworks  began  to  ap- 
pear. Through  the  energetic  action  of  the  Government, 
re-enforcements  began  to  pour  in ;  and  each  hour  the  Army 
of  the  Peninsula  grew  stronger  and  stronger,  until  anxiety 
passed  from  my  mind  as  to  the  result  of  an  attack  upon 
us." 

President  Lincoln  was  sorely  troubled  by  this  unneces- 
sary siege;  and  he  wrote  to  Gen.  M'Clellan  during  its 
progress,  and  in  the  letter  he  says,  "  The  country  will  not 
fail  to  note  -r-  is  noting  noiv  —  that  the  present  hesitation 
to  move  upon  an  intrenched  position  is  hut  the  story  of 
Manassas  repeated."  —  Conduct  of  the  War,  Part  I.  pp. 
17,  18. 

This  letter  must  have  stung  Gen.  M'Clellan  to  the  quick ; 
but  he  deserved  every  word  of  the  rebuke  ;  and  the  nation 
cannot  fail  to  recognize  the  superiority  of  the  President's 
views  on  the  subject  over  those  of  M'Clellan.  And  this 
is  all  the  more  important,  if  the  remark  of  a  prominent 
officer  was  true,  "We  lost  Richmond  at  Yorktown." 

"We  will  not  multiply  examples  of  this  kind,  though  we 
might  add  many  more  from  the  Committee's  Report.    These 


HIS   ^\DMIXISTRATION.  59 

will  serve  our  purpose  as  well  as  more,  and  show  the  truth 
of  our  position,  that,  if  Gen.  M'Clelhin  were  sincere  iu  his 
views  and  measures,  then  President  Lincoln  possesses  the 
greater  military  genius  of  the  two. 

We  will,  however,  quote  a  letter  which  the  President 
wrote  to  Gen.  M'Clellan,  Oct.  13,  18G2.  It  exhibits  so 
much  greater  militaiy  knowledge  than  INI'Clellan's  pro- 
posed views  and  measures  about  which  the  letter  dis- 
courses, that  it  is  worthy  of  careful  perusal. 

It  w^as  after  the  battle  of  Antietam.  The  President 
desired  that  M'Clellan  should  cross  the  Potomac,  and  pur- 
sue and  destroy  the  fleeing  rebel  army.  Many  of  his 
generals  were  in  favor  of  this  summary  measure.  But 
M'Clellan  hesitated,  and  made  excuses  for  not  moving, 
until  the  President  directed  Gen.  Ilalleck  to  telegraph  to 
him,  "  Your  army  miist  move  now  while  the  roads  arc 
good."  One  week  thereafter,  the  following  letter  in  ques- 
tion was  penned.  (See  Conduct  of  War,  Part  I.  pp.  44- 
46.) 

My  dear  Sir,  —  You  remembermy  speakmg  to  you  of  what 
I  called  your  over-cautiousness.  Are  you  not  over-cautious  when 
you  assume  that  you  cannot  do  what  the  enemy  is  constantly 
doing  ?  Should  you  not  claim  to  be  at  least  his  equal  in  prowess, 
and  act  upon  the  claim  ? 

As  I  understand,  you  telegraphed  Gen.  Halleck  that  you  cannot 
subsist  your  army  at  Winchester,  unless  the  railroad  from  Harper's 
Ferry  to  that  point  be  put  in  working  order.  Bat  the  enemy  does 
now  subsist  his  array  at  Winchester,  at  a  distance  nearly  twice  as  great 
from  railroad  transportation  as  you  would  have  to  do  without  the 
railroad  last  named.  He  now  wagons  from  Culpepper  Court  House, 
which  is  just  about  twice  as  far  as  you  would  have  to  do  from  Har- 
per's Ferry,  He  is  certainly  not  more  than  half  as  well  provided 
with  wagons  as  you  are.  I  certainly  should  be  pleased  for  you  to 
have  the  advantage  of  the  railroad  from  Harper's  Ferry  to  Win- 


60  THE   PIOXEER   BOY   AS    PRESIDENT. 

Chester ;  but  it  wastes  all  the  remainder  of  autumn  to  give  it  to 
you,  and,  in  fact,  ignores  the  question  of  time,  which  cannot  and 
must  not  be  ignored. 

Again :  one  of  the  standard  maxims  of  war,  as  jou  know,  is  "  to 
operate  upon  the  enemy's  communications  as  much  as  possible 
without  exposing  your  own."  You  seem  to  act  as  if  this  apphed 
against  you,  but  cannot  apply  in  your  favor.  Change  positions 
with  the  enemy,  and  think  you  not  that  he  would  break  your  com- 
munication with  Eichmond  within  the  next  twenty -four  hours  ? 
Y'ou  dread  his  going  into  Pennsylvania.  But,  if  he  does  so  in  full 
force,  he  gives  up  his  communications  to  you  absolutely,  and  you 
have  nothing  to  do  but  to  follow  and  ruin  him :  if  he  does  so  with 
less  than  full  force,  fall  upon  and  beat  what  is  left  behind  all  the  easier. 

Exclusive  of  the  water-hne,  you  are  now  nearer  Richmond  than 
the  enemy  is  by  the  route  that  you  can  and  he  must  take.  "Why  can 
you  not  reach  there  before  him,  unless  you  admit  that  he  is  more 
than  your  equal  on  a  inarch  ?  His  route  is  the  arc  of  a  circle,  while 
yours  is  the  chord.     The  roads  are  as  good  on  yours  as  on  his. 

You  know  I  desired,  but  did  not  order,  you  to  cross  the 
Potomac  below,  instead  of  above,  the  Shenandoah  and  Blue  Ridge. 
My  idea  was,  that  this  would  at  once  menace  the  enemy's  commu- 
nications, which  I  would  sieze,  if  he  would  permit.  K  he  should 
move  northward,  I  would  follow  him  closely,  holding  his  commu- 
nications. If  he  should  prevent  our  seizing  his  communications, 
and  move  towards  Richmond,  I  would  press  closely  to  him,  fight 
him  if  a  favorable  opportunity  should  present,  and  at  least  try  to 
beat  him  to  Richmond  on  the  inside  track.  I  say,  "try  :"  if  we 
never  try,  we  shall  never  succeed.  If  he  make  a  stand  at  Win- 
chester, moving  neither  north  nor  south,  I  would  fight  him  there, 
on  the  idea,  that,  if  we  cannot  beat  him  when  he  bears  the  wastage  of 
coming  to  us,  we  never  can  ichen  we  bear  the  wastage  of  going  to  hiyn. 
This  proposition  is  a  simple  truth,  and  is  too  miportant  to  be  lost 
sight  of  for  a  moment.  In  coming  to  us,  he  tenders  us  an  advan- 
tage which  we  should  not  waive.  We  should  not  so  operate  as  to 
merely  drive  him  away.  As  we  must  beat  him  somewhere,  or  fail 
finally,  we  can  do  it,  if  at  all,  easier  near  to  us  than  far  aicay.  If  we 
cannot  beat  the  enemy  where  he  now  is,  we  never  can  he  again 
being  within  the  intrenchments  of  Richmond. 


HIS   ADMINISTRATION.  61 

Recurring  to  tlie  Mea  of  going  to  Richmond  on  tlie  inside  track, 
the  lacility  of  supplying  from  the  side-way  from  the  enemy  ia 
remarkable,  a5  it  were,  by  the  dirtorent  spokes  of  a  wheel,  extend- 
ing from  the  hub  towards  the  rim ;  and  this  whether  you  move 
directly  by  the  chord  or  on  the  inside  arc,  hugging  the  Blue  Ridge 
more  closely.  The  chord-line,  as  you  see,  carries  you  by  Aldie, 
Hay  market,  and  Fredericksburg ;  and  you  see  how  turnpikes,  rail- 
roads, and  finally  the  Potomac,  by  Aquia  Creek,  meet  you  at  all 
points  from  Washington.  The  same,  only  the  lines  lengthened  a 
little,  if  you  press  closer  to  the  Blue  Ridge  part  of  the  way.  The 
gaps  through  the  Blue  Ridge  I  understand  to  be  about  the  follow- 
ing distances  from  Harper's  Ferry  :  to  wit.  Vestal's,  five  miles ; 
Gregory's,  thirteen;  Suicher's,  eighteen;  Ashby's,  twenty-eight; 
Manassas,  thirty -eight ;  Chester,  forty -five  ;  and  Thornton's,  fifty- 
three.  I  should  think  it  preferable  to  take  the  route  nearest  the 
enemy,  disabUng  him  to  make  an  important  move  without  your 
knowledge,  and  compelling  him  to  keep  his  forces  together  for 
dread  of  you.  The  gaps  would  enable  you  to  attack,  if  you  should 
wish.  For  a  great  part  of  the  way,  you  would  be  practically  be- 
tween the  enemy  and  both  Washington  and  Riclmiond,  enabhng 
us  to  spare  you  the  greatest  number  of  troops  from  here.  When, 
at  length,  running  for  Richmond  ahead  of  him  enables  him  to 
move  this  way,  if  he  does  so,  turn,  and  attack  him  in  the  rear ; 
but  I  think  he  should  be  engaged  long  before  such  point  is  reached. 
It  is  all  easy,  if  our  troops  march  as  well  as  the  enemy ;  and  it  is  un- 
inanly  to  say  they  cannot  do  it.     This  letter  is  in  no  sense  an  order. 

Yours  truly,  A.  Lincoln. 

Major-Gen.  M'Clellan. 

No  plan  or  document  emanating  from  Gen.  M"Clellan, 
since  the  outbreak  of  the  Rebellion,  bears,  so  unmistakably 
as  this  letter  of  the  President,  a  correct  knowledge  of  the 
military  position,  a  clear  and  comprehensive  idea  of  the 
manner  of  conducting  the  campaign,  and  a  bird's-eye  view 
of  the  advantages  and  disadvantages  of  tlils  way  of  de- 
stroying the  rebel  army,  and  capturing  Richmond.  And 
we  would  suggest  to  those  persons  who  have  complained 


62  THE   nONEER   BOY   AS   PRESIDENT. 

of  the  President,  at  times,  because  he  did  not  prosecute  the 
war  more  vigorously,  that  they  cast  the  blame  where  it 
does  not  belong.  AVith  two  or  three  such  generals  as 
M^Clellan  in  the  field  to  manage,  a  President  would  have 
his  hands  full  of  business,  without  any  other  official 
duties. 

A  class  of  true  antislavery  men  have  doubted  Mr.  Lin- 
coln's fidelity  to  freedom.  Utterly  ignoring  his  antecedents, 
which  have  always  exhibited  the  most  decided  hostility  to 
slavery,  they  have  sometimes  talked  as  if  he  desired 
to  save  slavery.  While  they  cannot  put  their  finger  upon 
a  single  act  or  speech  of  his,  since  he  entered  public  life, 
that* favors  the  institution,  they  nevertheless  fear  that  he  is 
not  true  to  liberty.  How  strange !  Let  them  ponder  the 
following  facts :  — 

1.  The  rebels  have  denounced  INIr.  Lincoln  more  for  his 
hostility  to  slavery  than  for  any  thing  else.  As  soon  as  he 
was  nominated  for  the  Presidency,  they  began  to  point  to 
his  antislavery  antecedents  to  show  that  he  would  not  favor 
the  "  peculiar  institution  "  of  the  South. 

2.  In  Congress  he  distinguished  himself  as  an  antislavery 
man  by  introducing  an  amendment  to  a  bill  relating  to  the 
slave-trade  in  the  District  of  Columbia.  His  amendment 
provided  for  the  abolition  of  slavery  there  ;  and  it  is  a  some- 
what remarkable  coincidence,  that  the  man  who  labored  to 
carry  this  measure  through  Congress  in  1848  should  be- 
come the  President  of  the  United  States  twelve  years 
thereafter,  and,  by  his  administration,  slavery  be  abolished 
in  that  District.  He  was  defeated  then;  but  he  is  tri- 
umphant now. 

3.  Eead  the  speeches  of  Judge  Douglas  in  the  memora- 
ble canvass  of  Illinois  with  Mr.  Lincoln.     One  of  his  chief 


HIS   ADMINISTRATION.  63 

points  of  attack  upon  Mr.  Lincoln  was  his  anti.'^lavory 
antecedents.  He  endeavored  to  cast  reproach  upon  liim 
for  his  opposition  to  shivery. 

4.  See  what  has  been  accomplished  under  his  Adminis- 
tration. First,  slavery  abolished  in  the  District  of  Colum- 
bia ;  second,  slavery  prohibited  for  ever  in  the  Territories  ; 
third,  the  Proclamation  of  P2mancipation  ;  fourth,  negroes 
employed  as  soldiers ;  fifth,  the  recognition  of  Ilayti  and 
Liberia ;  sixth,  the  African  slave-trade  restrained  as  never 
before.  He  who  is  not  satisfied  with  this  progress  must 
find  frequent  occasion  to  murmur  at  Divine  Providence. 

AVhen  ^Villiam  Lloyd  Garrison,  than  whom  a  more 
radical  abolitionist  does  not  live,  is  satisfied  with  the  Presi- 
dent's policy  on  this  score,  surely  they  who  have  never 
asked  to  be  considered  so  thoroughly  antislavery  ought  to 
be  content  with  these  results.  Mr.  Garrison  says,  in  sup- 
porting Mr.  Lincoln's  Administration,  "  I  think  every 
thing  looks  auspicious  for  our  country.  It  seems  to  me 
that  the  omens  are  all  good,  and  that  we  are  making  prog- 
ress in  the  right  direction  every  day,  and  every  hour  of 
the  day.  I  believe,  that,  under  this  Administration,  ice 
have  advanced  a  quarter  of  a  century  in  a  single  year;  and 
therefore  the  President,  however  slow  in  comparison  with 
our  wishes  or  aspirations,  instead  of  being  an  *  ox-team,* 
has  beaten  even  the  '  Birmingham  train.'  .  .  .  My  friends, 
if  every  thing  has  not  been  done  that  we  could  desire,  or 
that  justice  demands,  let  us  see  how  much  has  been  done. 
Is  it  not  far  heyond  all  that  we  could  have  rationally  ex- 
pected"^ The  work  of  a  quarter  of  a  century  done  up  in 
a  single  year  should  make  us  hopeful  and  patient,  and 
encourage  us  to  believe  that  all  minor  inequalities  will  be 
looked  after  in  due  season." 


64  THE    PIONEER   BOY   AS   PRESIDENT. 

Hon.  Mr.  Arnold,  member  of  the  United-States  House  of 
Representatives,  from  Illinois,  the  intimate  acquaintance 
of  Mr.  Lincoln  for  twenty  yeai-s,  has  so  well  presented  this 
point  in  a  speech  before  the  House,  that  we  quote  the 
closing  paragraphs:  — 

"  However  others  have  doubted  and  hesitated,  ^Mr.  Lincoln's 
faith  in  the  success  of  our  cause  has  never  been  shaken.  He  has 
been  radical  in  all  that  concerns  slavery,  and  conservative  in  all 
that  relates  to  liberty. 

"  His  course  upon  the  slavery  question  has  shown  his  love  of 
freedom,  his  sagacity,  and  his  wisdom.  From  the  beginning,  he 
has  beheved  that  the  Rebellion  would  dig  the  grave  of  slavery. 
He  has  allowed  the  suicide  of  slavery  to  be  consummated  by  the 
slaveholders  themselves.  Many  have  blamed  hun  for  going  too 
fast  in  his  antislavery  measures  :  more,  I  think,  have  blamed  him 
for  going  too  slow,  of  which  I  have  been  one.  History  will  perhaps 
give  him  credit  for  acting  with  great  and  wise  discretion.  The 
calm,  intelligent,  philosophic  aboUtionists  of  the  Old  World,  uninflu- 
enced by  the  passions  which  surround  and  color  our  judgments, 
send,  across  the  ocean,  congratulation  and  admiration  on  the  success 
and  wisdom  of  his  course.  The  three  leading  features  of  his  Ad- 
ministration on  the  subject  of  slavery  are,  — 
•    "  1.  His  Proclamation  of  Emancipation. 

"  2.  The  employment  of  negroes  as  soldiers. 

"  3.  The  Amnesty  Proclamation,  which  makes  Liberty  the  cor- 
ner-stone of  reconstruction. 

"  The  Emancipation  Proclamation  will  hve  in  history  as  one  of 
those  great  events  which  measure  the  advance  of  the  world.  The 
historian  will  rank  it  alongside  with  the  acquisition  of  Magna  Chaita 
and  the  Declaration  of  Independence.  This  great  State  paper  was 
issued  after  the  most  careful  and  anxious  reflection,  and  concludes 
with  these  solemn  words  :  — 

" '  And  upon  this  act,  sincerely  beheved  to  be  an  act  of  justice, 
warranted  by  the  Constitution  and  military  necessity,  I  invoke  the 
considerate  judgment  of  mankind,  and  the  gracious  favor  of  Al- 
mighty God.' 

"  The  considerate  judgment  of  mankind  on  both  sides  of  the 


HIS   ADMINISTRATION.  65 

ocean  has  already  approved  it ;  and  God  lias  seemed  to  favor  it 
witli  a  series  of  victories  to  our  arms  never  witnessed  before  its 
issue,  —  a  series  of  victories  for  which  we  are  more  indebted  to 
the  President  than  to  any  other  man." 

"  But,"  says  one  of  this  class,  who  can  scarcely  wait  for 
God  to  bring  the  children  of  Israel  out  of  bondage,  "  the 
President  mollified  Fremont's  proclamation."  True;  and 
why?  Simply  to  make  it  conform  to  the  Act  of  Con- 
gress of  Aug.  G,  18G1;  and  surely  this  ought  to  have 
been  the  case.  When  the  President  saw  the  proclamation, 
he  wrote  to  Gen.  Fremont,  pointing  out  its  nonconformity 
to  the  Act  of  Congress,  and  suggesting  that  Fremont 
himself  should  change  it  to  conform  thereto.  But  Gen. 
Fremont  preferred  that  the  President  should  do  it ;  and  so 
Mr.  Lincoln  wrote  another  communication,  dated  Sept.  11, 
1861,  from  which  we  extract  the  following:  "On  seeing  • 
your  proclaniation  of  Aug.  30,  /  perceive  no  general 
objection  to  it :  the  particular  clause,  however,  in  relation 
to  the  confiscation  of  property  and  the  liberation  of  slaves, 
appeared  to  me  to  be  objectionable  in  its  nonconformity  to 
the  Act  of  Congress,  passed  the  Gth  of  last  August,  upon 
the  same  subjects." 

"  But  there  was  Gen.  Hunter's  proclamation,"  says  the 
objector  :  "  the  President  revoked  it."  True  ;  and  why  ? 
Sim^dy  because  no  one  has  a  right  to  issue  such  a  procla- 
mation but  the  President,  and  that,  too,  as  a  military 
necessity.  But  Gen.  Hunter  did  not  issue  his  proclama- 
tion "  from  any  alleged  military  necessity  growing  out  of 
the  operations  in  his  department,  but  from  a  theoretical 
incompatibility  between  slavery  and  inartial  law''  Two 
good  reasons,  then,  why  the  President  should  interfere ! 
In   his   proclamation   revoking  Gen.  Hunter's  order,  tho 


66  THE   PIONEER   BOY   AS   PEESIDENT. 

President  expressly  states  that  the  right  to  free  the  slaves 
belongs  to  himself,  and  intimates  that  he  may  do  it  when 
"it  shall  have  become  a  necessity,  indispensable  to  the 
maintenance  of  the  Government ; "  and,  in  view  of  what  he 
shall  be  obHged  to  do  (proclaim  liberty  to  the  captives), 
he  entreats  (in  the  same  proclamation)  the  citizens  of  the 
slave  States  to  adopt  his  previous  measure  of  the  gradual 
abolition  of  slavery,  saying,  "  To  the  people  of  these  States, 
now,  I  mostly  appeal.  I  do  not  argue  :  I  beseech  you  to 
make  the  arguments  for  yourselves.  You  cannot,  if  you 
would,  be  blind  to  the  signs  of  the  times.  .  .  .  vSo  much 
good  has  not  been  done  by  one  effort  in  all  past  time,  as,  in 
the  providence  of  God,  it  is  now  your  high  privilege  to  do. 
May  the  vast  future  not  have  to  lament  that  you  have 
neglected  it!" 

How  earnest  and  serious  is  the  President  in  this  matter ! 
"  If  you  do  not  abolish  slavery,  I  shall,"  is  the  amount  of 
the  above  appeal  to  the  slaveholding  States.  The  two 
documents  that  interfered  with  Fremont's  and  Hunter's 
proclamations  prove  that  Mr.  Lincoln  was  not  only  in  favor 
of  liberating  the  slaves,  but  was  expecting  the  time  would 
come  when  he  must  do  it  as  a  military  necessity.  Now  that 
he  has  done  it,  why  make  so  much  bluster  because  he  did 
not  do  it  sooner  ?  Rather,  with  Mr.  Garrison,  be  thankful 
that  it  is  done  at  all,  and  adore  Divine  Providence  for 
putting  it  into  the  heart  of  the  President  to  manage  the 
difficult  question  in  such  a  manner  as  to  unite  the  masses 
of  the  people,  and  thereby  avert  the  terrible  disaster 
that  would  have  resulted  to  our  cause  from  dividing  the 
loyal  country  into  factions  by  more  hasty  and  violent 
measures. 

Even  Wendell  Phillips  has  recognized  the  duty  of  the 


HIS   ADMINISTRATION.  67 

President  to  adhere  to  the  Constitution,  so  far  as  possible, 
in  dealing  with  slavery ;  and  the  following  extracts  from 
his  speeches  are  a  complete  indorsement  of  the  views  we 
have  presented.  At  the  Music  Hall,  in  April,  18G1,  he 
Kaid,  — 

"  Abraham  Lincoln  knows  nothinrr,  has  a  right  to  know  nothing, 
but  the  Constitution  of  the  United  States.  The  South  is  all 
wrong,  and  the  Administration  is  all  riglit." 

At  Fraraingham,  July  4,  18C1,  he  said, — 

*'  "Wliat  do  I  ask  of  the  Government  ?  I  do  not  ask  it  to  announce 
a  policy  of  emancipation  now :  it  is  not  strong  enouyh  to  do  it.  We  can 
announce  it;  the  people  can  discuss  it:  the  Administration  is 
NOT  STRONG  ENOUGH  TO  ANNOUNCE  IT.  I  do  not  carc  whether  it 
means  it  or  not.  It  were  utter  ruin  to  announce  it  now. 
.  .  .  An  honest  Administration,  an  honest  President,  stands  hesi- 
tating, distrusting  the  strength  of  the  popular  feeling  behind  him.  .  .  . 
Abraham  Lmcoln,  Salmon  P.  Chase,  Montgomery  Blair,  have  not 
the  heart  nor  tlie  u-ish  to  thrust  back  into  the  hell  of  Virginia  slavery 
one  single  contraband  article  in  Fortress  Monroe.  They  never  will 
do  it.  .  .  .  My  poUcy,  therefore,  is,  give  the  Administration  generous 
sympathy.  Give  it  all  the  confidence  for  honesty  of  purpose  you 
can.  They  mean  now  only  the  Union ;  but  they  are  willing  we 
should  make  them  mean  any  thing  more  we  please.  Abraham  Lincoln 
means  to  do  his  constitutional  duty  in  the  crisis.  /  have  faith  in 
his  honesty." 

Mark,  that  this  radical  abolitionist  expressly  declared  in 
the  above,  that  the  President  was  in  advance  of  public 
opinion  on  the  question  of  liberty ;  and  this  has  always 
been  the  fact.  The  violent  and  extensive  opposition  to  all 
his  radical  measures  against  slavery  is  proof  of  this.  One 
year  later,  he  said,  — 

"  I  find  great  encouragement  everywhere.  /  find  it  in  the  dis- 
position of  the  President.  I  beUeve  he  means  what  he  said  to  the 
Border-State  senators  and  representatives,  when,  at  the  announce- 


68  THE   PIONEER   BOY   AS   PRESIDENT. 

ment  of  his  message,  he  summoned  them  to  his  presence,  — '  Gen- 
tlemen, don't  talk  to  me  about  slavery :  you  love  it ;  I  hate  it. 
You  mean  it  shall  live  :   I  mean  it  shall  die.' 

"Lincoln  is  ahead  of  any  thing  you  have  said.  The  State  of 
Massachusetts  is  offering  him  to  day  millions.  What  he  wants  is  an 
indorsement  and  an  encouragement .  "Wliat  the  Senate  want  is  a  policy 
pronounced  by  the  people." 

"We  have  referred  to  the  fact,  that  the  rebels  denounce 
Mr.  Lincoln  as  a  tyrant  and  usurper,  while  some  loyal 
people  regard  him  as  altogether  too  lenient.  That  jMr. 
Lincoln  has  been  kind,  conciliatory,  and  forbearing,  no 
sane  man  will  deny.  But,  so  far  from  reproaching  his 
Administration,  it  is  highly  honorable  to  him  and  the 
nation.  If  he  had  manifested  the  same  spirit  of  revenge  and 
barbarism  that  has  been  exhibited  by  the  enemy,  this  civil 
strife  would  have  been  divested  of  every  feature  of  humanity 
and  civilized  warfare,  and  resulted  in  indiscriminate  and 
savage  butchery.  Under  his  tolerant  yet  firm  and  resolute 
guidance,  the  Government  stands  forth  to-day  a  model  of  na- 
tional forbearance,  to  challenge  the  admiration  of  the  world. 
To  crush  the  Rebellion,  and  restore  peace  to  our  distracted 
land,  with  this  tolerant  spirit,  will  secure  to  us  a  better 
name  and  greater  respect,  when  the  war  is  over.  When 
Saul  hunted  David  with  savage  ferocity,  the  latter  fled 
with  his  men  to  the  Cave  of  Engedi  for  rest  and  safety. 
As  he  reposed  in  the  rear  of  the  dark  recess,  who  should 
enter,  one  day,  but  Saul  and  his  blood-thirsty  warriors! 
Saul  did  not  know  that  David  was  there,  although  he  was 
pursuing  him.  What  an  exultant  moment  for  David ! 
Saul  was  now  completely  within  his  power.  David  could 
fall  upon  his  foe,  and  speedily  annihilate  him ;  and  his 
men  thought  it  was  a  capital  chance.  They  said,  "  Behold 
the  day,  of  which  the  Lord  said  unto  thee,  Behold^  I  will 


HIS   ADMINISTRATION.  69 

deliver  thine  enemy  into  tliine  hand,  tliat  thou  mayest  do 
to  him  as  it  shall  seem  good  unto  thee." 

But  David  shrank  from  such  a  bloody  slaughter.  lie 
simply  advanced  secretly,  aud  cut  off  the  skirt  of  Saurs 
robe,  just  to  show  him  that  he  might  have  cut  off  his  head 
as  easily.  Doubtless  some  of  his  soldiei*s  called  him  a 
"  fool "  for  sparing  the  enemy,  who  had  occasioned  him  so 
much  distress.  But  David  acted  his  own  lenient  pleasure, 
and  the  world  now  calls  him  magnanimous.  His  cause 
triumphed  with  all  his  forbearance,  and  the  character  of  the 
leader  appears  more  noble  and  attractive  in  consequence. 
In  like  manner,  when  this  war  is  over,  and  the  humane 
and  forbearing  policy  of  our  President  appears  in  contrast 
with  the  barbarity  of  the  Rebel  Government,  every  loyal 
citizen  will  proudly  turn  to  this  feature  of  his  Administra- 
tion, and  call  him  magnanimous. 

Much  has  been  said  and  written  about  the  President's 
plan  of  reconstniction.  It  has  been  misunderstood,  mis- 
represented, and  vilified.  His  plan  is  simply  this,  and 
plain  common  sense  anywhere  can  comprehend  it.  Be- 
lieving that  State  governments  only  have  been  overthrown 
by  the  Rebellion,  Mr.  Lincoln  proposes  to  reconstruct 
State  government^  alone.  How  ?  -  Just  as  it  was  done  in 
Virginia  in  the  early  part  of  the  war.  Before  his  atten- 
tion could  be  given  to  the  subject  particularly.  Providence 
seems  to  have  furnished  a  precedent  in  Western  Virginia. 
The  thing  was  done  there,  and  worked  well :  why  may  it 
not  be  done  elsewhere,  successfully,  by  the  people  who  are 
loyal  to  the  Constitution  and  Government  of  the  United 
States  ?  The  loyal  people  are  the  State,  by  the  President's 
plan.  The  rebels  do  not  take  a  state  out  of  the  Union, 
since  the  loyal  people  are  the  State :  they  only  take  them- 


70  THE   PIONEER   BOY   AS   PRESIDENT. 

selves  out,  and  subvert  the  Government,  leaving  the  loyal 
people  to  reconstruct  the  Government.  The  President's 
proclamation  simply  provides  a^  method,  by  which  all  per- 
sons, who  have  incurred  the  penalties  of  treason,  may 
return  to  their  allegiance,  with  certain  exceptions  ;  and 
also  a  plan  for  establishing  loyal  State-governments,  like 
that  in  Virginia,  in  all  other  States  where  the  Rebellion 
has  subverted  the  loyal  governments.  Is  not  this  enough, 
and  well?  Does  any  one  ask  if  this  plan  will  destroy 
slavery  ?  We  reply  by  asking,  How  is  it  possible  to  save 
slavery  by  this  plan  ?  War  has  emancipated  the  slaves  ; 
and,  before  a  rebel  can  be  restored  to  his  forfeited  rights, 
he  must  swear  to  support  the  rights  of  all,  which  includes 
the  rights  of  emancipated  slaves.  Gen.  Grant  has  well 
said,  — 

"  The  people  of  the  North  need  not  quarrel  over  the  institution 
of  slavery.  What  Vice-President  Stephens  acknowledges  as  the 
corner-stone  of  the  Confederacy  is  already  knocked  out.  Slavery 
is  already  dead,  and  cannot  be  resurrected.  It  would  take  a  stand- 
ing army  to  maintain  slavery  in  the  South,  if  we  were  to  take 
possession  to-day,  guaranteeing  to  the  South  all  their  former  con- 
stitutional privileges.  I  never  was  an  abolitionist,  not  even  what 
would  be  called  antislavery  :  but  I  try  to  judge  fairly  and  honest- 
ly ;  and  it  became  patent  to  my  mind,  early  in  the  Rebellion,  that 
the  North  and  South  could  never  live  at  peace  with  each  other, 
except  as  one  nation,  and  that  without  slavery.  As  anxious  as  I 
am  to  see  peace  estabUshed,  /  would  not,  therefofB,  he  loilling  to  see 
any  settlement  until  this  question  is  for  ever  settled." 

THE    people's    choice. 

It  is  not  strange,  then,  that  the  loyal  people  demand 
that  Mr.  Lincoln  should  serve  them  another  term  in  the 
Presidential  chair.    It  would  be  a  mark  of  base  ingrati- 


THE    TEOrLE's   CHOICE.  71 

tude  if  it  were  otherwise.  Nay,  more :  it  would  prove 
that  the  people  are  insensible  to  their  perils.  For  to 
change  our  President  in  the  face  of  the  enemy  would  be 
as  suicidal  as  to  change  a  competent  general  on  the  eve  of 
battle.  A  veteran  soldier  roughly  replied  to  the  interroga- 
tive, whether  the  soldiers  desired  the  re-election  of  Mr. 
Lincoln,  "  Why,  of  course  they  do.  We  have  all  re- 
enlisted  to  see  this  thing  through,  and  old  Abe  must  re-en- 
list too.  He  mustered  us  in,  and  must  stay  where  he  is 
until  he  has  mustered  us  out.  We'll  never  give  it  up  until 
every  rebel  acknowledges  that  he  is  the  constitutional 
President.  AMieu  they  got  beat  at  the  election,  they 
kicked  out  of  the  traces,  and  declared  that  they  would  not 
submit  to  a  black  Republican  President ;  but  they  must. 
We  will  show  them  that  flections  in  thii?  country  have  got 
to  stajid.  Old  Abe  must  stay  in  the  White  House  until 
every  rebel  climbs  down,  and  agrees  to  behave  himself, 
and  obey  the  laws  of  his  countiy.  There  mustn't  be  any 
fooling  in  this  thing ;  for  I  wouldn't  give  a  copper  for  tliis 
country  if  the  beaten  side  has  a  right  to  bolt  after  an 
election  :    it  icoulda't  be  Jit  to  live  in." 

There  is  more  truth  than  elegance  in  the  soldier's  words. 
His  philosophy  is  good,  and  loyal  men  should  adopt  it. 
But  one  sentiment  pervades  the  entire  army ;  and  that  is, 
"  Abraham  Lincoln  must  serve  another  term."  Gen.  Neal 
Dow,  who  was  released  from  Libby  Prison  a  few  months 
since,  said  in  a  speech  at  Portland, — 

"  At  present,  the  rebels  are  looking  anxiously  at  movements  in 
the  North  in  relation  to  the  next  Presidential  election.  Their 
hope  is,  tliat  some  other  man  tlian  Mr.  Lincoln  may  be  nominated 
and  elected  to  the  rresidency.  The  election  of  any  other  person 
tliey  will  regard  as  a  siu-e  indication  that  the  loyal  North  tires  of 


72  THE    PIONEER   BOT   AS    PRESEDEXT. 

the  war,  and  means  to  change  its  policy  in  relation  to  it.  The 
leaders  of  the  Rebellion  have  now  no  other  hope  of  success  than 
this  ;  and  their  hope  is,  that  those  may  come  into  power  who  will 
say  to  them,  '  Erring  sisters,  depart  in  peace ! '  The  officers  in 
Libby  Prison,  who  had  abundant  opportunities  to  see  the  feeUng  of 
the  rebels  on  this  subject,  were  anxious  that  the  loyal  men  of  the 
Xorth  should  perceive  the  danger  of  lending  any  encouragment  to 
it  2so  man  has  a  greater  respect  than  m^*elf  for  Mr.  Chase  and 
3ilr.  Fremont,  nor  a  more  entire  conviction  of  their  loyalty,  and 
their  ability  to  conduct  the  affairs  of  the  country  with  honor  to 
themselves,  and  to  the  advantage  of  the  nation ;  but,  for  this  time, 
I  should  regard  the  nomination  of  any  other  person  than  !Mr. 
Lincoln  as  a  pubUc  misfortune." 

The  wisdom  and  safety  of  taking  one  whom  the  country- 
lias  tried  in  the  most  perilous  times,  and  who  "  knows  the 
ropes,"  instead  of  electing  a  new  and  untried  man,  must  be 
apparent  to  every  reflecting  citizen. 

Mr.  Lincoln  is  qualified  to  do  even  better  another  presi- 
dential term  than  he  has  done  this :  he  has  now  that  best 
of  all  qualilications,  —  experience.  He  has  become  ac- 
quainted with  the  machine,  and  knows  how  to  run  it. 

It  would  be  as  dishonorable  as  dangerous  for  the  nation 
to  shut  its  eyes  to  Mr.  Lincoln's  claims  to  re-election, — 
claims  not  based  on  any  thing  due  him,  but  due  ourselves. 

TTendell  Phillips,  in  a  speech  delivered  since  the  Procla- 
mation of  Emancipation  was  issued,  says,  — 

'•'I,  for  one,  have  no  objection  to  the  Presidency  of  Abraham 
Lincoln  for  four  or  eight  years  longer.  I  told  the  President  himself, 
—  and  I  beheved  it  then,  and  I  believe  it  now ;  I  meant  it  then, 
and  I  mean  it  now,  —  that  the  man  who  would  honestly  put  his 
hand  to  the  plough  of  that  proclamation,  and  execute  it,  this  people 
would  not  allow  to  quit  while  the  experimej\t  was  trying.  "Whoever 
starts  the  great  experiment  of  emancipation,  and  honestly  devotes 
his  energies  to  making  it  a  fact,  deserves  to  hold  the  helm  of  govern- 
ment till  that  experiment  is  Jinished." 


THE   nOXEER   BOY   AS    TIIESIDEXT.  73 

Mr.  Lincoln  was  never  an  ofTice-seeker :  be  is  not  now. 
He  was  never  accused  of  pulling  the  wires  to  secure  hi3 
own  nomination  to  any  office.  On  the  other  hand,  again 
and  again,  he  has  labored  for  the  promotion  of  others,  when 
his  friends  desired  to  promote  hira.  In  lSo4,  he  stumped 
the  State  of  Illinois,  in  connection  with  otlier  speakers ;  and 
the  result  was,  that,  for  the  first  time,  the  State  had  a 
Republican  legislature.  That  legislature  had  the  choice 
of  a  United-States  senator  to  make,  and  they  desired  to 
choose  Mr.  Lincoln.  But  he  entreated  them  to  elect  Mr. 
Trumbull ;  and  it  was  only  by  his  own  earnest  appeals  that 
they  were  induced  to  drop  Mr.  Lincoln's  name.  Subse- 
quently, he  was  offered  the  nomination  for  Governor  of 
Illinois ;  but  he  declined  the  honor  in  favor  of  JSIr.  Bissell. 
And,  when  Mr.  Seymour  became  Governor  of  New  York, 
Mr.  Lincoln  generously  sent  the  message  to  him,  that  he 
(Mr.  Seymour)  had  it  within  his  power  to  be  the  next 
President  of  the  United  States.  He  had  so  little  thought 
or  desire  for  the  office  himself,  that  he  would  gladly  wel- 
come a  political  opponent  to  it,  provided  he  loould  labor  to 
save  the  Union.  Few  public  men  have  been  so  magnani- 
mous as  this.  Few  have  been  great  or  good  enough  to  be 
so  magnanimous.  Truly  the  hand  of  Providence  is  mani- 
fest in  the  fact,  that  we  have  not  a  time-serving  office- 
seeker  for  President  in  this  fearful  crisis !  And  is  it  not  a 
singular  circumstance,  that  Gen.  Fremont  should  now  be 
a  aindidate  for  the  Presidency,  in  opposition  to  ^Ir.  Lin- 
coln, who  canvassed  the  State  of  Illinois  for  Fremont  in 
1856  ?     Alas,  Fremont  ingratitude  ! 

Foreigners  who  espouse  the  side  of  the  North  are 
anxious  that  Mr.  Lincoln  should  be  re-elected.  Peter 
Sinclair,  Esq.,  of  Scotland,  who  has  labored  for  our  Ciiuso 
4 


two  years  among  the  operatives  of  Lancashire,  and  whose 
labors,  in  the  opinion  of  many,  prevented  the  recognition  of 
the  Southern  Confederacy,  said  recently,  in  a  speech  in 
Boston,  "that  the  best  thing  we  could  do  for  our  cause 
abroad  was  the  re-election  of  Mr.  Lincoln;  that  the 
greatest  calamity  which  could  befall  the  loyal  States  would 
be  the  failure  to  continue  Mr.  Lincoln  in  office :  and  he 
QiIt.  Sinclair)  was  of  the  opinion,  that  the  election  of  any 
other  man  would  result  in  the  recognition  of  the  South,  and 
war  with  the  North ;  at  any  rate,  it  would  stimulate  our 
enemies  anew,  in  France  and  England,  to  labor  for  this 
object." 

Hon.  George  Thompson  of  England,  now  visiting  this 
country,  has  repeatedly  urged  the  re-election  of  Mr.  Lincoln, 
in  his  addresses.  At  the  late  radical  antislavery  conven- 
tion in  Boston,  he  dealt  heavy  blows  upon  certain  members 
for  their  attacks  upon  Mr.  Lincoln ;  and,  rising  to  speak 
the  second  time,  he  said, — 

"  I  felt  that  I  should  be  false  to  my  own  convictions,  and  unjust 
towards  the  party  who  had  been  assailed,  if  I  did  not  rise,  and,  as 
an  Englishman  and  an  abohtionist,  give  my  testimony  in  favor  of 
President  Lincoln.  .  .  . 

"  We  know,  too,  he  has  been  the  architect  of  his  own  fortunes ; 
and  that,  by  his  industry,  probity,  high  principles,  and  proverbial 
honesty,  he  has  won  his  way  to  the  confidence  of  the  American 
people.  We  know,  too,  that  he  was  elected  President  upon  a  plat- 
form, the  ne  plus  ultra  of  the  antislavery  of  which  was  the  exclusion 
of  slavery  from  the  fifteen  hundred  thousand  square  miles  of  north- 
western territory;  yet,  witliin  two  years  from  the  time  he  went 
into  the  White  House,  he  issued  a  proclamation  giving  hberty  to 
more  than  three  milhon  of  slaves.  He  has  united  this  great  re- 
publican nation  in  the  bonds  of  diplomatic  relationship  with  the 
hitherto  scorned  and  outlawed  negro  repubUcs  of  Hay  ti  and  Liberia ; 
and  I  read  in  the  papers  of  yesterday  that  the  representative  of  one 


THE   PIONEER   BOY   AS    rUESIDENT.  75 

of  these  States  was  introduced  upon  the  floor  of  the  Senate,  and 
received  the  same  attentions  as  are  usually  paid  to  the  nnnisters  of 
foreign  countries.  lie  lias  purged  the  national  District  from  the 
reproach  and  pollution  of  shivery,  and  lias  therehy  put  the  national 
brand  uimn  the  sin  and  crime  of  holding  human  beings  in  bondage. 
By  formal  message  and  resolution  sent  to  the  House  of  liepresen- 
tatives,  and  by  personal  interviews  with  the  men  from  the  Border 
States,  he  has  done  what  he  could  to  promote  emancipation  in  the 
districts  which  his  proclamation  could  not  reach.  Thus  he  has 
gone  on  from  step  to  step,  ever  advancing,  and  never  retreating, 
until  a  series  of  measures  has  been  accomplished,  such  as  the  most 
sanguine  amongst  us  never  dreamed  to  see  carried  during  the  pres- 
ent generation.  They  have  been  measures  so  grand,  so  beneficent 
and  all-important,  that  we  who  have  contemplated  them  from  the 
opposite  side  of  the  ocean  have  given  God  thanks  on  your  behalf, 
and  have  rejoiced  with  you  in  the  triumphs  you  have  won.  .  .  . 

"  When  I  look  to  the  difficulties  he  has  had  to  surmount,  the  war- 
ring elements  by  which  he  has  been  surrounded,  the  enemies  within 
and  without  that  have  compassed  his  destruction,  and  to  the  com- 
parative fewness  of  the  numbers  of  those  who  have  been  prepared 
to  sustain  him  in  really  radical  measures,  I  cannot  but  regard  him  as 
the  man  for  the  situation." 

Abraham  Lincoln  is  the  people's  choice.  He  has  won  a 
large  place  in  their  affections.  They  know  him  as  the 
honest  mjin  and  faithful  ruler.  They  honor  him  for  what 
he  is,  and  what  he  has  done.  Posterity  will  honor  him  as 
the  model  President,  the  champion  of  Freedom,  and  the 
Emancipator  ! 


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ABRAHAM    LINCOLN, 

"THE     PIONEER     BOY." 

By   WILLIAM   M.   THAYER. 

THIS  book  contains   the   full   and  reliable  life  of   President 
Lincoln,  from  the  time  he  was  seven  years  of  age  until  he 
took  his  seat  in  the  Presidential  chair. 

This  is  the  authentic  and  authorized  life  of  the  President, 
as  is  shown  by  the  subjoined  letter  from  the  son  of  the  Presi- 
dent, a  student  in  Harvard  College  :  — 

Cambridge,  April  17,  1863. 
Rev.  Mr.  Thayer, 

Dear  Sir,  —  I  received,  a  few  days  since,  a  copy  of  the  "  Pioneer 
Boy,"  for  which  I  wish  to  return  mv  thanks. 

'I  am  very  much  pleased  with  the  boolc,  as  an  interesting  story ;  and  I 
find,  that,  in  rending  it,  many  things  are  recalled  which  I  had  forgotten. 

You  have  been  singularly  successful  in  avoiding  errors;  as  I  find  1  liave, 
at  some  time,  heard  nearly  every  thing  you  narrate,  from  a  "reliable 
gentleman." 

With  the  best  wishes  for  its  success,  I  remain 
Yours  verv  trulv, 

ROBT.   T.    LINCOLN. 

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